High Fidelity Movie and DVD Review

High Fidelity

Movie and DVD Review

Remember when Nick Hornby used to write good books? I read a compendium containing Fever Pitch, High Fidelity and About a Boy back in the early 2000's, and I was floored. The three novels display a remarkable sense of humour and inventiveness and are only second in comedic value per square pound to Roddy Doyle's Barrytown Trilogy compilation. Since then though, Hornby's output has encountered more of a cliff-top fall off than downhill turn and I gave up after 2005's exercise in mediocirty, A Long Way Down.

I think the only reason I went back to read the books was that I had recently watched the movie adaptation of High Fidelity for the first time, and wanted to check out the source material.

Released in 2000, High Fidelity is a film that seems to live exclusively on DVD in my mind, as I missed the original theatrical release. It was developed by John Cusack, with the same writing team he used on Grosse Pointe Blank (another DVD you should check out). Apart from changing the setting from London, Cusack left most of the book intact.

Rob Gordon (Cusack) is a music aficionado who, as the movie opens, has just broken up with his girlfriend, Laura (played by Danish actress Iben Hjejle, who learned her American accent for the part). He runs a record shop, Championship Vinyl, with his two employees Dick (Todd Louiso) and Barry (Jack Black in a career-launching role). He struggles to get Laura back whilst trying to discern why all his relationships end in misery.

Why is this film so good? A host of reasons, including a stellar script which tampers just enough with the novel, great direction from Frears (who coincidentally also helmed two-thirds of the aforementioned Barrytown trilogy), a brilliant soundtrack which introduced me to several new bands, a not-too-saggy second act and a bravura performance by Jack Black. All that packed into a movie which is probably located in the €4.99 rack in your local HMV. In fact, why are you still reading this review? Go out and own this piece of brilliance right now.

The extras on my one-disc copy contain some better-than-average deleted scenes, and conversations with Cusack and Frears. The lack of audio commentary is what holds the package as a whole back from a five-star rating.

High Fidelity is a movie which I will dig out of my collection every few years for the foreseeable future. The Stevie Wonder song which rounds out the film is so beautiful that you will want to watch the end credits all the way through.

8.5/10