12/21/10 - High Fidelity

High Fidelity (2000, 113 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0146882/

I was reading some Top 10 of the decade lists and High Fidelity got mentioned in one of them. Ignoring the fact that it really doesn't count in this decade since it was 2000, it still reminded me that I'd wanted to see it for some time now so I decided now was the time to give it a go.

The film stars John Cusack as Rob Gordon. Rob owns a record store and works with Dick (Todd Louiso) and Barry (Jack Black) and is dating Laura (Iben Hjejle). However, Laura breaks up with him and so Rob does some soul-searching to see if he can get back with her. Minor roles are: Marie De Salle (Lisa Bonet), a musician that Rob meets; Charlie Nicholson (Catherine Zeta-Jones), one of Rob's ex-girlfriends; Liz (Joan Cusack), a co-worker of Laura; and Ian "Ray" Raymond (Tim Robbins), Laura's new boyfriend.

Almost Famous is one of my favorite movies ever and it also came out in 2000 so sadly I have to somewhat compare these two films. Almost Famous creates a timeless story about a band trying to make it big and the kid tasked with chronicling their adventures. High Fidelity follows one guy around as he tries to get his girlfriend back. Almost Famous is an Oscar nominated movie while High Fidelity garnered a single Golden Globe nomination. I was saddened to find out that the movies were pretty opposite in most everything except a focus on music. Thus the only thing they could fundamentally be compared on was the soundtrack. Almost Famous picks absolutely perfect songs for pretty much every scene. I feel like Crowe knew the background of each song and the meaning of the lyrics for each choice. Ending on "Tangerine" is one of my favorite scenes of any movie ever (it's even more awesome when you figure out the meaning to the lyrics in "Tangerine"). In High Fidelity though, the cheesy music choice seems to be used. "We Are the Champions" is used when it would be the first song to include if a brainstorming session were conducted. It's not a terrible choice but it's also one that doesn't really show much thought in my opinion. I'm sure a better choice of a celebratory song could have been picked.

It's somewhat not fair to compare High Fidelity with Almost Famous since I love one so much. So on to some thoughts on High Fidelity by itself. First and foremost, I wasn't a big fan of the plot. It really boils down to the fact that Rob hardly does anything to win Laura back. In fact, he's actually pretty creepy and weird as he calls her multiple times each night and almost stalks her. But then stuff just works out for the best when he simply utters an "I'm sorry." It's another easy way out for the plot to progress as then everything falls perfectly into place. I would have enjoyed if Rob's soul-searching produced some sort of result but it really didn't seem to get anywhere.

The biggest highlight to me of High Fidelity was John Cusack's job at making a likable Rob. It's not really Cusack's fault that the movie basically fails in the plot department (okay, maybe it might be since he is a screenplay credit), but I'm talking about his acting. Basically, he's just really really enjoyable to watch. He's convincing as this bumbling guy that is confused and in a mid-life crisis. He's torn between being angry and upset and he plays both of these emotions very well. The other characters are okay in the acting department but I think I liked Louiso as the awkward music snob of Dick the most besides Rob. Sadly, most every secondary character is entirely forgettable with Marie De Salle bordering on essentially pointless. This character exists only briefly to fill up some time in the plot and then suddenly vanishes.

High Fidelity is also one of those really quirky movies. I will immediately recognize that many of its nuances are hit or miss. The first example is the narrative of Rob. I enjoyed it but could easily see how it could be grating. I liked his incessant inclusion of lists for everything and I liked how this served as a way to better understand Rob's angst. The other goofy things the movie did were present in just some of the totally goofy lines. Barry seemed to be the biggest proponent of these. It wasn't the same quirky as something like (500) Days of Summer but it was a similar blending of reality and fantasy that can either work really well or not. Sadly, for me, I found most of these attempts to be misses.

Overall, I gave this film a 5/10. High Fidelity has some positives going for it with the biggest of those being Cusack's strong acting. However, a shaky plot and some "miss" features led me to only give it the average score. High Fidelity was just overall really forgettable. I doubt in two weeks I will remember anything from this watch. Because of this, it should probably get a lower score, but I'm using Cusack's performance as an excuse to keep it at the average mark.