HIGH FIDELITY

Before the nerdy video game aficionado and the nerdy sci-fi geek, there was the pop music fanatic. These are the kind of folks who are contestants on VH1’s “ROCK AND ROLL JEOPARDY,” the kind of folks who spent many nights in high school and college, not out having fun, but sitting alone at home with a brand new vinyl record. HIGH FIDELITY explores the world of these folks as they live, work and attempt to communicate and find love within their self-imposed, socially inept worlds.

Rob (John Cusack) is an early thirty-something who owns a vinyl record store in Chicago. Two staff members, the quiet and shy Scott (Todd Louiso) and the loud, sarcastic Jack (Jack Black), join him. These three young men have poor social skills, are arrogant in their knowledge of music and unlucky with the ladies.

Throughout the movie, Rob narrates his life to the audience and talks about the top five romantic breakups he has had. This talk is motivated by his most recent breakup to Laura (Iben Hjejle), a woman to whom he has been unfaithful and has impregnated which ended in abortion. Laura leaves Rob for a trippy, middle-aged longhair named Ian (Tim Robbins). Through a series of phone calls, odd dates, discussions with his cronies, and many musical interludes, Rob again pursues Laura with hopes of reconciliation and ultimately marriage.

No one would argue that these fellows are role models. They are, in fact, as noted by Laura, layabouts without ambition. The only impressive quality they have is their intelligence and command of musical trivia. Though Rob can maintain a business, he can hardly maintain himself and is filled with obsession, anger, jealousy, confusion, and discontent. Through self-examination, and an opportunity to represent a new band, Rob ultimately begins to understand personal growth, commitment and contentment. Likewise, through love and patience, Scott discovers new love too. Jack has no character growth at all and remains a mean-spirited imp.

HIGH FIDELITY may only be appealing to the nerdy music aficionado. Those who know pop music well may enjoy knowing some of the obscure music references. While marriage and commitment are noble, most of the movie is about failure. Furthermore, the personal growth isn’t motivated by spiritual, moral ideals but by a desire to succeed. This isn’t bad, it just is less than noble. Finally, the foul language and massive amounts of obsessive behavior may offend the casual Christian moviegoer.

This movie is primarily a one-character movie about Rob. If John Cusack didn’t have fine acting abilities, the movie would be a massive failure. His constant narration and monologues simply carry the movie. If you have an affinity to music and slacker types, you may find some common ground here, but, if your musical tastes run contrary to pop music, and you can’t understand social inadequacies, then HIGH FIDELITY may seem like noisy feedback.