High Fidelity

Classic Cusack
If ever there was a movie that could be construed as an allegorical representation of my life, this is it. If ever there was a Romantic Comedy written primarily for men (as opposed to women & couples), this is it!

John Cusack plays your typical everyday kind of guy who just so happens to have the absolute WORST luck with women. Stability in his personal life is ever elusive and he continues to get dumped by the women he dates. Typically he is ditched because the girl "meets another guy, and....."

Like most men, Cusack's character wants to have things both ways. He wants to have continuity in his life, yet the idea of commitment scares the tar out of him. What if he takes that giant leap but isn't able to make it to the other side of the canyon? What if he meets an even more worthwhile girl 2 days after getting married? Ah, the variables of relationships that we men torture ourselves with.

Aside from the venerable Cusack the film also features...

Watch it twice. At least.
It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't seen High Fidelity, or even someone who's just seen it once, how incredibly good it is. Take first the phenomenal John Cusack, who seems to make any film he appears in twice as watchable. Is there a more underrated leading man in this decade? I doubt it.

Then take into account the amazing support, knowns and unknowns - Cusack's sister Joan, Tim Robbins, Jack Black, etc. - even Zeta-Jones isn't half bad. Consider too the script, which is surprisingly faithful to Nick Hornby's (very good) book, and gives equal measure to comic and tragic relief.

Fianlly, the soundtrack. Can there be any greater song to sum up Rob Thomas (John Cusack's) final revelation after the film ends than Stevie Wonder's I Believe? No. High Fidelity is the complete package - funny, touching, well-acted, scripted, directed, scored for, and unbelievably true to life.

And for all those sad Englishmen writing in to complain that the movie should have been...

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...

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