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High Fidelity Customer Reviews (49 - 51 of 81 Reviews)

One of the best movies about love, whining, ambivalence
There are rare movies that you watch and you go "That's Me!" and these are especially great movies if the next thought in your head is "I'm an idiot!" I watched this movie and I missed fighting with an ex-girlfriend who is still a best friend. I think a lot of people will see it that way.

Anyhow, John Cusack whose niche seems to be playing losers (Better Off Dead, Say Anything, Being John Malkovich, Tapeheads, etc.) plays one of the most appealing losers since Lloyd from Say Anything. His girlfriend has left him. His career is running a failing record store. He decides to go over all his past relationships to figure out what went wrong. Worse is that his girlfriend keeps coming back for her stuff and you start to realize that she is perfect for him, even as she walks off to start something with the politically correct granola ponytail wearing upstairs neighbor played with smug self-satisfaction by Tim Robbins (in the scene where John Cusack wants to beat him senseless, Tim Robbins plays the part so you the audience would also like to beat him senseless)

Through a series of lists (five most humiliating breakups, five best songs about burning things up. four things that my ex- told her best friend to make her best friend hate my guts)his two friends at the record store (they fit the record store stereotype clerk to the hilt - or comic book store clerk or any store with a cool selection. one's a jerk and the other one's a freaky loner) and a brief affair with Lisa Bonet (whose version of "Baby I Love Your Ways" SHOULD be on the soundtrack but isn't.) and the meetings with the previously mentioned five most humiliating breakups, the main character stops relating to the world as a carnival that's out to stick him in the lion cage and starts gaining perspective, even maturity.

By the end with John Cusack back with his girlfriend, you have absolutely no idea if they are going to stay together or break up again, but you really want them to stay together. If only to give the notion that it's worth growing up. This is a long movie, a movie with many subplots and counter subplots but an honest movie and a movie that will go down as one of the classics of honest romance movies in a sea of saccharine junk with plots that were written from a standard romantic plotline (they meet, they go out, they sleep together, they break up, they get back together in a funny sequence at the end, the audience falls asleep, etc.) Original beauty and it makes me hope that the rest of Hornby's books should also be adapted for the screen.

Cusack's best role since the 80s
This enjoyable romantic comedy stars John Cusack as the love confused Rob Gordon. The movie starts with Rob's breakup with his current girlfriend Laura, leading us into an explaination of his five worst breakups. Cusack delivers a superb preformance (he also co-wrote the film) with the same charm that made him so popular back in the eighties. There are many famous notables. Tim Robins plays Rob's new-age neighbor, who dates Laura after her bad breakup with Rob. Catherine Zeta Jones and Lili Taylor appear as two of Rob's worst breakups. Also keep your eyes open for the whole Cusack family. Once again this is a movie saved by the greatness of John Cusack, by both his personal charm and his ability as a writer. Remember, Cusack is an actor who helped make the romantic comedies of the 80's great. His writing style and acting in High Fiedelity reflect that, making this film one of the best romantic comedies of the nineties and the closest we have seen to the great ones of the eighties.

A rock'n good time...
This delightful comedy explores the limited emotional capacity of thirty-something males in their relationships with the opposite sex. Based on the best selling novel of the same name, the text was originally set in London, and per the author, Nick Hornby, the novel's theme was the setting -London. John Cusack and company adapted the novel to a wonderful screenplay set in Chicago. In the film the focus is on relationships, particularly the central character, Rob Gordon, a second hand record store owner, who has an obsession for making lists: top five relationships, top five break-ups, top five careers, top five favourite songs, etc. Rob Gordon is not a very likable fellow: self-absorbed, hypocritical, emotionally challenged though one can relate to his feelings when it comes to grappling with sex and love.

John Cusack in the lead carried the film a long with his high energy, great skill and that renowned Cusack charisma. But Jack Black stole the show as the witty and comically sarcastic music-dweb and pop-culture snob. I think we've all met 'Rob' at one point or another, where 'taste' is accountable. Rob's estranged girlfriend, Laura, played by unknown, Iben Hjejle, really captured the kind of girl that most of us mere males would fall in love with. Her performance was understated, sensitive and believable - she also has a great smile. Tod Louiso as the quiet underachiever, Dick, had the most expressive close-ups, communicating exactly what he was thinking and feeling. In the interview section of the DVD, Cusack comments that Tod was an assassin when it came to close-ups. Dick is another character that most of us have met somewhere along the line - another great performance.

One can see that the actors and crew had a great time making this film. This translated in the overall performance. The choice of music, (another central character) felt to be right on the mark. Music is autobiographical - a particular tune from the past can ignite memories, some good, and some bad, representing a phase of our history. The film showed this fact with accuracy and charm.

This film has certainly made my top ten of all time favourite modern romantic comedies.

Four and a half stars.

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