Worth seeing

Rating: 7/10 (4 October 2000)

High Fidelity is an angst ridden narrative comedy about Rob's (John Cusack) bad luck with women. His girlfriend Laura (Danish actress Iben Hjejle) has just dumped him. This sends him into a hurricane of self-doubt and introspection about all the most traumatic breakups in his life complete with flashbacks of each of the top five. While vainly trying to get Laura back, he contacts all the other breakup perpetrators in an attempt to exorcise the ghosts of relationships past.
The film has plenty of funny moments and a high identification factor for single adults suffering through the dating scene. Director Stephen Frears gives it a Woody Allenesque presentation and does it as well as if had been done by Allen himself. Though there is not much that is original about the story, it borrows good techniques and ideas from various romantic comedy formats, and melds them together effectively.
The biggest problem for me was the main character, Rob. This was more the way he was written than the way Cusack played him, because I thought the acting was excellent. Rob was seriously out of touch with his hand in his own demise, which made him seem like a jerk. His rationalizations for relieving his guilt and sense of failure for past relationships made him a very superficial and hollow character, regardless of the sincerity of his self inflicted torment. This inability for me to identify with the lead detracted somewhat from a story that was otherwise well done.
John Cusack was terrific. He was fabulous at licking his litany of self-inflicted wounds, and though I didn't fall in love with the character, his portrayal of this anguished lovelorn puppy was first rate. Iben Hjejle was also very good as Laura, giving her a sort of dignified confusion as she tried to sort things out.
This film was good and definitely worth seeing, but it didn't send me over the edge. As is often true, the hype was overblown. I rated it a 7/10. Add a point or two if you are single and you just broke up with someone.