John Cusack’s new movie, High Fidelity, would be a perfect double bill with Grosse Pointe Blank. Both feature Cusack as an engaging wise-ass caught between full-fledged adulthood and over-grown adolescence. Both show a borderline reverence for alternative music and have excellent soundtracks. Both movies have a beautiful woman who causes much torture and hand wringing to Cusack’s character. In both cases, she’s a woman who one can’t help but think wouldn’t have anything to do with a guy like that in real life.
But John Cusack’s appeal admittedly goes a long way. In High Fidelity he plays Rob Gordon, a smug hipster with a hidden decency, the owner of a music store that primarily sells obscure, hard-to-find records. His girlfriend, Laura (Iben Hjejle), leaves him early in the movie and Rob spends most of his time debating with himself about what Laura has to offer, about his past relationships, and about fidelity in general. He often speaks to the audience directly, which provides a personalized element that doesn’t always work. Several times I wished he would just shut up and get back to realizing that he needed to fix things with Laura.
I also wished that his music store employees, Barry (Jack Black) and Dick (Todd Louiso), had more screen time. They pretty much steal the movie right out from under John Cusack’s high-top wearing feet. Barry is a cranky know-it-all who abuses the musical tastes and knowledge of the customers. Dick has a more timid nature, but there’s a subtle edge to him that his outward behavior conceals. Barry and Dick are hilarious. They made the movie. They should have their own movie. Their roles might look like two clich music geeks on paper, but the performances by Jack Black and Todd Louiso make them much more like real music store employees (the stores that have employees who actually know music, anyway).
The rest of the cast consists of a lot of famous faces in small roles. Lisa Bonet plays Marie DeSalle, a musician everyone develops a crush on. Then there’s Joan Cusack as Liz in brief but memorable bursts of acid wit as her loyalty to Rob and/or Laura is tested, Tim Robbins is the icky, pony-tail wearing suitor of Laura after she leaves Rob, and Lili Taylor is one of his former girlfriends. There are also a couple of uncredited cameos that speak highly of John Cusack’s and director Stephen Frears’ ( The Grifters) ability to attract big name celebrities.
High Fidelity is a very likable movie and it’s the kind of movie that could become a surprise hit. It’s a funny movie filled with good performances. As a matter of fact, it has one of the funniest fight scenes I have ever witnessed. John Cusack is a generous actor willing to share the spotlight with his talented costars, but I wish the movie had been less about his own personal attempts to understand dating and would have spent more time with the top five obsessions of Barry and Dick. That’s what happens when characters steal a movie; you miss them when they’re off screen. The overly used direct-to-camera narration got old quickly, and became more distracting than essential to the film. Even though John Cusack has considerable charm as an actor, it grew a little thin for me, as did the charms of High Fidelity.
+ David Kern
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