Starring John Cusack, Iben Hjejle, Jack Black, Todd Louiso, Joan Cusack, Lisa Bonet, Natasha Gregson Warner, Joelle Carter, Lili Taylor, Tim Robbins, Catherine Zeta Jones, Jill Peterson, Sara Gilbert, Bruce Springsteen. Directed by Stephen Frears. Rob Gordon (John Cusack) is in his 30's and owns a used record store in a low-rent district in Chicago. He has two music geek employees who just started showing up, and won't go away. Barry is obnoxious and opinionated, saying anything that comes into his head. Dick is shy and timid, and tries to avoid confrontation. Rob tends to be on the depressed side, and figures his obsession with the broken-heart themes in pop music might have something to do with it. He has just broken up with his lawyer girlfriend Laura (Hjejle), another in a long line of confusing and often messy breakups for him. She has taken up with a flaky, aging hippie Ian (Robbins), who just happens to live above Rob. His sister Liz (Joan Cuzack) doesn't want to take sides, but she likes Laura and wishes the relationship would have worked. His mother really, really wishes it would have worked - she wants Rob to settle down. Right now. Rob has a Top 5 List of worst breakups, and decides to talk to each one to discover what he is doing wrong. Number 1 is a girl he met and necked with for three consecutive afternoons in the 7th grade, but who necked with another guy on day four, and then eventually married him. There's Penny (Carter), a girl he dumped in high school because she wouldn't put out, but who then sleeps with the next guy she dates. Next is beautiful, opinionated Charlie (Zeta Jones), who Rob always thought was out of his league, and soon she was. On the rebound he met Sarah (Taylor), who was also recovering from her bad breakup, but who quickly dumped him when she found some other guy she liked better. Rob decides he wants to get Laura back. Along the way, he meets a local singer Marie Desalle (Bonet) and a very cute music critic Caroline (Warner). Eventually he has to decide what he really wants. Filmed in Chicago from a book set in London, High Fidelity is an often funny, and often insightful look into a man who doesn't want to leave adolescence behind just yet. But it is also, to some degree a romantic comedy. The film is targeted primarily to men, not in the action-guns-and-babes way, but in its emphasis on pop music geekdom and how relationships affect guys. But there is enough of interest for female viewers too - an intelligent script, interesting characters, both male and female and a large helping of romance. The script was a collaberation between John Cusack and three of his friends, and it beautifully moves between pop music references, thoughtful character examination and extremely hilarious situations. Scenes such as Rob imagining him and his friends kicking the crap out of Robbins, and Barry insulting various customers left me laughing very hard. Frears and the script have adopted an interesting style, not unlike Egoyan and Tarantino, skillfully blending past occurences in Rob's life with current events. It helps to move the film move along quickly, and enhances the energy. Occasionally, the movie falters. For example, Rob's personal revelation about relationships in the rain at the funeral, and events surrounding it are not convincing and seem forced in to get a desired conclusion for the film. Plus, the movie tends to sag a bit whenever Laura is on screen - she's pretty much as confused as Rob is. The cast is about as eclectic as it gets, and for the most part quite good. John Cusack is as good as he's ever been, beautifully capturing the conflict Rob feels in wanting to discover what he's doing wrong in his relationships, but not actually wanting to change his nearly responsibility free lifestyle to do it. An excellent scene involves him preparing a compilation tape for a woman, and the need to select songs that properly reflect the feelings he wants to convey. It never occurs to him to just tell her himself. Zeta Jones is quite good, nicely conveying the vacuous, narcissistic yuppie in love with her own opinions. But the actor that steals every scene he's in is Jack Black, who provides energy and a devil-may-care style to Barry, who says what he thinks whenever he feels like it, and delivers many of the films best lines. On the negative side, Robbins is not entirely convincing as the aging hippie. And Hjejle is not at all convincing as a lawyer, with no real real chemistry with Cusack. Top 5 Reasons To See High Fidelity 1. Jack Black 2. Excellent and highly varied pop music soundtrack 3. Great script 4. It is often very, very funny. 5. You would rather see The Skulls instead? If you would like to respond, please click the E-Mail Press Here To Go To The Review List Page