When I was younger, I got to meet him and stayed in touch. The Springsteen segment is but one of many devices used by High Fidelity to lay bare the soul of Rob Gordon, a compulsive record shop owner suffering a thirtysomething crisis when his latest girlfriend moves out. Cusack knows the film has to distance itself from a boy s fascination with music trivia to appeal beyond a fringe audience. Some men in their thirties are ready for a relationship, but they just can t let go of the fantasy that they re going to meet a woman who ll make all the laws of gravity stop working, and that that woman s right around the corner. They miss that rush you get when you first date someone or sleep with someone the first 10 times.
Men are more crippled in their delusions about what a relationship is supposed to be.
We thought confessing to camera would be best. Nick writes these characters who are total screw-ups and sort of everymen. They admit a lot of truths we don t like to admit about ourselves. But Cusack should know, having already scuttled around other people s heads this year. If you can see people acting, they re not doing a good job.