This is in the top five movies of all-time

Rating: 9/10 (17 September 2008)

One of the top five best movies of all-time about the fear and loneliness that is settling down. I decided to revisit this masterpiece after I paged through Nick Hornby's novel that inspired this Chicago filmed classic.
It is unbelievable that movies can sometimes just hit you and let you know that other people have experienced exactly what you're feeling (probably one billion times before, like even cavemen looked at their girlfriends once or twice and said, "that's it, eh?"). Most people will take this as a movie about breaking up (but it's not), and lots of people just see this move as a chick-flick for dudes (but it sort of is). It's the greatest dude-flick of all time (if you count Terminator 2 and The Matrix as "guy movies" and say Swingers as another "dude flick").
Being a business owner in his mid-twenties who used to live in the same neighborhood Championship Vinyl was in skews my opinion a bit, but I have to say that the movie is about growing up in the twentieth century. We're not supposed to be married at twenty-one anymore and that creates a lot of time to mess up our relationships and turn into jaded, pessimistic, intelligent, nerds. Cusack is so believable in this role, and you like this character so much that you find yourself defending his flaws in your own mind. He creates a character that allows the viewer to suspend judgment. I suddenly find myself scanning through the minutia of my own hobbies looking for the smallest details to enjoy. Few movies make you think about them after they're long done, but I make constant correlations to myself and Rob as much as possible. It becomes a parable to live by.
It gets a nine because the ending isn't perfect. Most of the time I turn the movie off right when the girl comes in to give him an interview. I can't stand the real ending of this movie, or the book for that matter. This movie is so much like real life that it kills me that the ending drapes itself in a fairy tale. As if to say, "Okay ladies, I know you'd all be angry if it ended like real life right now, so to please all sexes I'll throw a little happy ending in for you." Hmm... sounds like a masseuse I know...
There are scenes in the book where Rob is hanging out with his parents that are not in the movie. Where Rob contemplates suicide because some nerd-looking-thirty-five-year-old enjoying a movie with his parents smiles at him to clue him into being in the same predicament. Rob takes the smile as a clue-in to his hell. It's a classic reading moment where you're literally laughing out loud (instead of the figurative internet way that makes my brain want to explode). Plus, the whole funeral scene is completely different in the movie. The book in general really comes off as so much more anti-women. Laura isn't so damn lovable. Except that I really don't see how people can find Iben Hjejle sexy, or even likable really.
Cusack is better in this movie, than anything I've seen him in. Jack Black is perfect as Barry and is closest to his novel character. I can very much tell Jack Black is a Hornby fan (hmmm.... thirty-something stoner with a rock band... is that such a stretch?) I can sit around saying how great the book was, but the only thing that matters is that the movie really gave it justice and if I'm Nick Hornby, I owe a big one to Frears and Cusack for really giving my readership a little (no, a big) reach-around.