good movie, better book

Rating: 7/10 (4 April 2000)

John Cusack's latest manic love story is not only based on Nick Hornby's novel of the same name, but nearly copies the book word for word. When I read the book a couple of years ago, I remember thinking what a great movie it would make. When I heard that John Cusack would be starring in sort of an Americanized version, I could see it. Just the right fit.

Now that I've seen the finished product, which is pretty much what I envisioned, I'm a bit disappointed. For one thing, I didn't expect Cusack's character, Rob Gordon, to talk into the camera all the way through the movie. I thought they'd find a more inventive way to show the inner workings of this thoroughly confused person's mind. Nearly every time Rob is talking to another character, he'll turn to the camera and give us his thoughts, sort of including us in the conversation. I'm all for innovative filmmaking, but this just seems like a cop-out to me. We like movies because they find ways to show what's going on in a person's head through their interaction with others and their behavior. If they'd cut Rob's monologues, the film would have been a half hour long. This type of blatant exposition is becoming a problem in the industry as a whole: too many thought-revealing voice-overs and other conversations that sound like someone reading from an encyclopedia.
Not that high fidelity is a bad movie. It's actually very amusing most of the time and I'm sure if I hadn't read the book, I'd have enjoyed it more. Music and the intense emotions behind it create the film's landscape. It's fun to watch the arguments over what songs belong in a certain `top five' list. In fact, Rob and his employees, Barry (Jack Black) and Dick (Todd Louiso), have a Top Five songs for every life situation. For example: when Rob's girlfriend's father dies, they create a `top five songs about death' as a tribute to the man, which is the only way they know how to express their sympathy. The result of all the lists and mix tapes is a very eclectic mix of music of all styles and from all eras. It's proof that when you mix it all together, you find that the old stuff is just as cool or, more times than not, cooler than the new stuff.
Rob's Top Five All-Time Worst Breakups is the list on which the entire story is based. He uses it to deal with his frustration over his latest breakup, Laura (Iben Hjejle). This is one area in which the film improves upon the book: Laura's character is more fully developed here. Rob comes up with the list just so he can leave her off of it, to prove how little she really mattered to him (when in fact, she's the love of his life). High-profile actresses Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lili Taylor, and Lisa Bonet take small roles as the other loved and lost women of Rob's life. Rob is not an easy guy to like, the way he uses these poor women just to sort his own feelings out.
Seeing the film version makes me want to go back and read the book, a format in which the narrator is welcome to express his feelings right to the audience. If you're about to go and see the movie, don't. Read the book instead or at least read it first and then see the film if you must. So consider this the official warning: the book is better.

Grade: C+