Length: 113 min.
Released: 2000
High Fidelity is a trip down memory lane for those nostalgic about lost love, record collections, and the freedom of not working a desk job.
John Cusack seems to fall into characters unsure whether to stay put or run away. His character in High Fidelity views life in terms of music, and supports his massive record collection by running an independent record store. His two employees are played by Jack Black and Todd Louiso. Black plays his snobbish character with so much enthusiasm you accept him as being simply eccentric, but it's Louiso's understated charm which gets him the girlfriend and the great one-liners.
The film introduced many people to Nick Hornby, the English author who wrote the book on which the film is based. Cusack, originally from Chicago, moved the story from London suburbs to more familiar ground outside Chicago. Some of the English musical references have been changed for an American audience, but relationship troubles are universal, and the rest of the story is intact. Hornby's own appreciation for music and his characters use music as their form of communication, examines life from a musical perspective, and his characters use music to interact with other people in their lives. The soundtrack is a sampling of rock and indie bands both old and new, the type of selection you would expect to hear playing in an independent record shop. Mirroring the plot, these songs of frustration, confusion and attempts at love express the characters' emotions better than they can.
As in many Cusack films, his sister Joan and Lili Taylor coax him through his relationship foibles, along with the past women in his life, played by such actresses as Catherine Zeta-Jones and Lisa Bonet (best-known for her role on The Cosby Show). Tim Robbins makes an appearance as an egocentric in a different type of role for him.
High Fidelity should be viewed as a time capsule of sorts, as it captures an earlier moment in time. Less and less people physically go to small independent music stores to buy their music, few buy actual records, many don't the sound quality difference, and the new generation doesn't know them at all. But in high contrast to the proliferation of cheap digital media, people are still interested in vinyl, and they continue to have their popularity, albeit cultish. And isn't that some sort of success anyway?
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