Flawless.

Rating: 10/10 (27 October 2007)

It's very rare for me to start a film and within the first ten or fifteen minutes fall completely head over heels in love with it. High Fidelity transcends this rarity. Within mere seconds, my eyes were glued and my jaw was dropped by how incredibly in love with it I became. Everything from the wild performances to the wonderful moral to the flawless soundtrack was absolutely perfect. It's a film about maturing and realizing that nothing is the way you want it to be, so you need to learn how to settle. It also happens to be one of the most enjoyable films of all time.
This modern tale of growing up takes place under the story of a breakup and one man's desperate need to discover why his partners always go right from him to someone else. Over the first thirty or so minutes, Rob Gordon (John Cusack) goes through his all-time, top-five most memorable breakups and we see that each one of them ended because the girl chose someone else over him (except for the one that he broke up with due to her lack of sexual promiscuity; immediately after their split she slept with a guy). The film begins with the newest breakup, Laura (Iben Hjejle) who we soon find out is now bedding Ian (Tim Robbins), more commonly referred to as Ray. This sends him into a reassessment of his own life and he decides to find these other four women and figure out why they chose someone else over him.
In doing this, he discovers that these women weren't what he remembered them to be. They are extremely flawed individuals whom he wouldn't want to take back, even if they wanted him back. This sparks his realization that all of his fantasies of what his dream life should be and how perfect everything is in his mind is never really the truth. He slowly accepts that in the real world he has to settle constantly and nothing can be completely perfect. No matter what, every element of life has it's flaws and every relationship has bumps to get past. He had been putting all of these ex-girlfriends up on a pedestal and it took this revelation in order to bring them down. Due to this realization, he was finally able to move on with his life and actually mature instead of remaining in the constant void of unrequited fantasies he had trapped himself in.
I'm not one for spoiling endings, but I have to say that High Fidelity features one of the most satisfying finales as far as I'm concerned. Rob's newfound maturity and ability to move on with his life, along with a wonderful decision from a certain someone, does nothing but bring an enormous smile to my face. A lot of this enjoyment comes from the satisfaction achieved by one of the most relatable characters in film history. Rob is easily a character that very closely resembles my own self in so many ways. It goes beyond his excellent taste in music and the fact that he builds up fantasies that are far more perfect than any thing could realistically become to the smallest elements of his life like his trivial tendency to make 'Top 5' lists on the most insignificant things. I can find so much in myself that is similar to Rob, so watching him succeed in life almost gives me a sense that I can eventually succeed as well.
Something I've always said when it comes to film is that my favorite elements belong to the story and the characters. High Fidelity excels in both of these categories by an immense proportion. The story is inspirational and highly engaging with deep characters who entrance you and keep you glued to the screen. Rob's riffs to the audience are brilliant and range from being absolutely heart-shattering to side-splitting hilarity. Speaking of hilarity, comic relief has never tasted as sweet as the combination of Dick and Barry, the two employees at the record store Rob owns played impeccably by Todd Louiso and Jack Black respectively. The three of them bounce off one another seamlessly and give a pure sense of authenticity and keep the laughs coming in this wonderful tale. All of the performances are just as strong as the rest of the film, but the highlight is clearly from the anchor John Cusack. He's also been an actor I felt I could relate to and in becoming this character that relatability only increases massively. He hits such a range of emotion and becomes this character so flawlessly that it seems as if Stephen Frears just put a camera on him and told him to say whatever he wants. A perfect performance highlighting a perfect film.