High Fidelity (film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
High Fidelity is a 2000 film directed by Stephen Frears and starring John Cusack. The film is based on the 1995 English novel of the same name by Nick Hornby. After seeing the film, Hornby expressed his happiness with John Cusack's performance as Rob Gordon, saying, "At times, it appears to be a film in which John Cusack reads my book."
Plot
Rob Gordon is a music-loving man with a poor understanding of women. After being dumped by his live-in girlfriend of two years, Laura, he tries to understand how he failed in his relationships by seeking out his old partners.
By day, Rob works at his record store, Championship Vinyl, where customers drift through. He and his employees Dick and Barry, armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of all things musical, compile "Top 5" lists for every conceivable occasion, openly mock the tastes of their customers, and sell few records.
Two shoplifting, skateboarding teenagers, Vince and Justin, are an annoyance to them until Rob listens to a recording that they made as The Kinky Wizards. He offers them a record deal, the first under his own label, Top 5 Records. During his off-hours, he pines for Laura and tries to win her back.
Laura had moved out and was living with Ian. Initially, Rob doesn't think he knows him, but coming across a letter in the hall addressed to I. Raymond he realises. Ian is 'Ray', their former upstairs neighbor, who used to regularly keep them awake by loudly having frequent sexual encounters. Rob and Laura would often comment on his exploits.
Laura's father, who liked Rob, dies. Rob attends his funeral with Laura. Shortly after the reception, Rob realizes he has always had one foot out of the door and never committed to her—and in doing so, neglected his own future. They resume living together. He meets a music columnist and develops a crush, but wonders while making a mixtape for her if he would always be jumping from rock to rock.
Rob tells Laura that other women are just fantasies, Laura is reality, and he never tires of her. He proposes marriage; she thanks him for asking. She arranges for him to revisit his former love of dee-jaying.
At the celebration of the newly released single by Vince and Justin organised by Laura, where Barry's band plays "Let's Get It On", Rob is surprised that Barry's band is not a disaster. He is also relieved to discover that Barry has decided against using one of his original names for the band, "Sonic Death Monkey," or "Kathleen Turner Overdrive," preferring instead to call his band "Barry Jive and the Uptown Five."
Rob makes a mixtape for Laura and feels he has finally learned how to make her happy.
