Review of High Fidelity (2000) by Anthony M — 04 Jan 2013

When love gets you drunk a number of times, there's not much else to do but stagger. Rob Gordon's big beef is reaching quintessential comfort in an underground culture built on doing different things. This is an acceptance, kind of. When there's music but no lyrics, can there really be music playing at all? Whatever. Rob's busy whizzing by emotions like greedy empires waiting for some sort of approval to crash and burn bright as stars in the sky. You're thinking: what an asshole. Well, you got it. Life ticks for no one, and you'd be dreaming to assume Rob's Laura (Iben Hjejle), an ambitious babe freshly broke from what her boyfriend sees as a concept to fill, can outrun grad's door with only his mopey dick to swing by.

But God only knows what he'd do without her. Call director Stephen Frears a professional appreciator: from a tight yet easily adjustable script from D.V. DeVincentis, Steve Pink, John Cusack and Scott Rosenberg, "High Fidelity" shoots from all over but hits the heart at the same center. Cusack plays record store-owner Rob with an even nuttier Alvy Singer oozing from his every pore, a public downer who takes attitude with ignorance. Frears keeps the pain from this hipster nightmare on showcase in Rob's regular POV therapy sessions and personal conclusions before the camera. And when no help comes from pals Barry (Jack Black) and Dick (Todd Louiso), the dude can always be screamed at by hyper-critical sis Liz (Joan Cusack, mostly just hanging in the family) or mom (Margaret Travolta) about his roster of false brides.

Frears could have chosen to fantasize this lustful story whenever he'd wanted. Ditto with Rob. Truth is, neither man nor film ultimately destroy, journeying a frightened layer of love while buried six feet beneath it. With an ensemble cast, including Catherine Zeta-Jones as one of Rob's dates of yore and Tim Robbins as Laura's spiritual rebound, working in the same constellation, "High Fidelity" all but narrows Rob's past to a pretty science. It doesn't shape a whole, but analyzes the risks in simply adding anything new to the terrane. And that entity can only breathe a being of its own. This flick, whatever amateur of evil exes, will get in touch with your world.