Bitterly sarcastic, wonderfully amusing film

Rating: Null/10 (7 July 2000)

High Fidelity was the best movie I've seen in years - wickedly sarcastic at times, incredibly funny. The main character, Rob, is a leather-jacket wearing, music-collecting Chicagoan who works in a record store -- in the book by Nick Hornby, he's an English bloke, instead. The 'action' (also, lots of narrative) centers around his never-changing love life, and whether or not he will get back together with Laura, the lawyer-girlfriend who leaves him at the beginning of the film.
Nick isn't exactly likable, but we can sympathize with him - he's stuck in his rut of a life, making lists, hanging out in bars with his even more unlikable employees Dick and Barry, being left by girlfriend after girlfriend. While his girlfriend, Laura, has changed since they met (from a young punkish lawyer to an older more sedate one) Rob has never progressed, never grown up.
Some liberties were taken with the book - apart from the plot moving from England to Chicago, which changes one of the more important subplots. (Rob meets an American singer in the book, and her American-ness is crucial to what happens.) Also, some of the odder scenes are changed, or taken out -- essentially, the story is mainstreamed for the American audience. However, High Fidelity, the movie, retains the original charm and witticism of the book.