Sweet and wickedly funny.

Rating: 9/10 (14 March 2001)

A sweet and wickedly funny tale of Rob Gordon (John Cusack), a struggling music store owner who deals with his two assistants: Barry (Jack Black), who is basically a nutcase and Dick (Todd Louiso), who is the opposite and presents himself as quiet and easygoing. Rob, Dick, and Barry spend their days in the store, constantly talking about any type of music.
However, Rob is emotionally crushed when his latest girlfriend, Laura (Iben Hjejle), dumps him for Ian (Tim Robbins), a quiet man who has the appearence of a neat freak. When Ian comes into the store one day and talks to Barry, Rob, and Dick in a calm manner. Each one has a fantasy of their own which consists of verbally chewing out Ian and scaring him away or beating the living daylights out of him. I must admit that scene made me both laugh and cringe for a short moment.
"High Fidelity" marks the reunion between Cusack and the British director, Stephen Frears ("The Hit"), who made "The Grifters" in 1990 with Cusack in one of the lead roles.
John Cusack is great here and in some scenes, he talks directly to the screen about some of the real-life facts in Chicago, where the film was made in, but the novel by Nick Hornsby was done in London. Chicago and London look very similar even though both cities are in different countries.
Besides Cusack, there are some great supporting performances turned in by Black and Louiso, who seemed more interesting out of the duo. Hjejle is solid here as the girlfriend. Catherine Zeta-Jones (Traffic")and singer Bruce Springsteen appear here in cameos.
Composer Howard Shore conducts a solid score and the photography by Seamus McGarvey is simply brilliant.
"High Fidelity" may be one of Cusack's best films and those people who head the Academy should do themselves a big favor - give Cusack an Oscar.