a refreshingly honest and cliché-free romantic comedy.

Rating: 9/10 (10 May 2000)

Have you ever spent hours organizing your record collection in chronological order and by genre? Have you
ever had heated debates with your friends about the merits
of a band who lost one of its founding members? Or argued about your top five favourite B-sides? If so, chances
are you will love High Fidelity, a film for and about characters obsessed with their favourite bands and music.
Rob Gordon (John Cusack) is an obsessed music junkie who owns a record store called Championship Vinyl. He has just broken up with Laura (Iben Hjejle), a long-time
girlfriend and the latest in a countless string of failed
relationships. Rob addresses us directly throughout the
film (just like Woody Allen did in his 1977 film, Annie Hall)
about this latest breakup and how his top five break-ups of
all-time inform his most recent one. It's a great way for
which Rob to try and come to terms with his shortcomings
and the reasons why his past relationships did not work
out. He is talking directly to us and in doing so we relate to
him and his dilemma a lot easier.
Along the way we meet a colourful assortment of characters, from his past girlfriends (that includes the
diverse likes of Lili Taylor and Catherine Zeta Jones) to his
co-workers at Championship Vinyl (Jack Black and Todd Louiso). They really flesh out the film to such a degree that I
felt like I was seeing aspects of my friends and myself in
these characters. Being a self-confessed obsessive type
when it comes to music and film, I could easily relate to
these people and their problems.
And that's why High Fidelity works so well for me. The
extremely funny and wryly observant script by D.V. DeVincentis, Steve Pink, and John Cusack (the same team
behind the excellent Grosse Pointe Blank) not only zeroes
in on what it is to love something so passionately but why
other things (like relationships) often take a backseat as a
result. A girlfriend might not always be there for you, but
your favourite album or film will. A song will never judge you
or walk out on you and there is a kind of comfort in that.
The screenplay also makes some fantastic observations on how men view love and relationships. Throughout the
film Cusack's character delivers several monologues to us
about his thoughts on past love affairs, one of my favourite
being the top five things he liked about Laura. It's a
touching, hopelessly romantic speech that reminded me a
lot of Woody Allen's list of things to live for in Manhattan
(1979).
The screenplay works so well because not only it is well
written but it also features a solid ensemble cast. The role
of Rob Gordon is clearly tailor-made for John Cusack. Rob
contains all the trademarks of the kinds of characters he's
known for: the cynical, self-deprecating humour, the love of
80s music, and the inability to commit to the woman of his
dreams. Even though High Fidelity is not directed by Cusack, like Grosse Pointe Blank, it is clearly his film, right
down to the casting of friends in front of and behind the
camera (i.e. actors Tim Robbins, Lili Taylor, his sister
Joan, and screenwriters, D.V. DeVincentis and Steve Pink).
The rest of the cast is also fantastic, in particular, Jack
Black and Todd Louiso as the two guys who work at Championship Vinyl. Louiso's Dick is a shy, introverted guy
that you can imagine listening to The Smiths religiously,
while Black's Barry is a rude, annoying blowhard who says
everything you wish you could actually say in public. It's a
flashy, scene-stealing role that Black does to perfection.
And yet, his character isn't overused and only appears at
the right moments and for maximum comic effect. His sparing usage in High Fidelity made me want to see more
of him, which is why he works so well.
Even though the world and the characters in High Fidelity
are unashamedly of a rarified type: the obsessive music
geek or elitist, which some people may have trouble relating to, the film's conclusion suggests that there is
much more to life than one's all-consuming passion for
these things. It also helps to be passionate about someone. And that message is delivered in a refreshingly
honest and cliché-free fashion as it provides what is ultimately the humanist core of High Fidelity.