Campaign: Cusack to be in every film ever

Rating: Null/10 (25 July 2000)

Thank god Nick Hornby sold his book to Hollywood and the action was moved to Chicago. If we had tried to keep "High Fidelity" in Britain, some dreadful couple like Ewan McGregor doing his "accent" and Sadie Frost doing her "acting" probably would have been cast and it would have been a horrible mess. In the capable hands of Cusack and co though it's mostly a delight, a genuinely funny, realistic comedy about relationships - which is the point of the book, not the fact that it happens in a certain place. It's themes that are important here.
Rob (John Cusack) addresses the camera a lot, which is OK because it's done without any self-consciousness and Cusack is a likeable presence. He also addresses his (ex?) girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle) a lot, which is not OK, because she is awful. He gives all the reasons he misses her at one stage and it rings utterly false because Hjejle is barely even one-dimensional. She's going to have enough trouble being successful in English-speaking cinema with that name, and being useless as well... It's a shame.
Apart from Hjejle and the ever-irritating Catherine Zeta Jones, the casting is spot on. Jack Black and especially Todd Louiso are inspired as Rob's desperately sad record-shop colleagues. Tim Robbins, Lili Taylor and others flit in and out in blink-and-you'll-miss-them cameos, adding to the picture with their understated but rich skill. The standouts are both named Cusack, though; Joan puts in sterling work as usual while John is simply terrific. Considering he is in almost every frame, not once did I get tired of him.
A few of the book's details have been kept, which will make British audiences feel like they're in on a secret - like none of the first names changing, so you've got people called Ian and Barry and Liz in an American film, which you don't often get. But the real achievement is in the screenplay, which gets laughs - big, genuine laughs - without resorting to jokey jokes and one-liners. It's real dialogue and real people, the humour comes from the situations and the characters - and it's up there with the best examples of this that I know, "Withnail & I" and "Swingers". And, to be fair, "Grosse Point Blank"; although this isn't as good as that John Cusack masterpiece, it's pushing it. These two films prove Cusack is one of the finest and most interesting A-list actors working today.
Funny, heartwarming, real, a top-notch comedy. Those moaning about changes from the book should be ashamed of themselves. Stop it. You know who you are.