High Fidelity leads the audience through the lovelife of Rob Gordon (Cusack) as narrated by Gordon himself. Rob has recently had a breakup with his girlfriend of several years, and this opens up a period of time in his life where he begins asking whether he is incompetent in relationships or merely if relationships are inherently faulty. This dialogue with the audience is punctuated with hilarious instances of conflict with the two music nerds that work at Gordon's music store. The choices of music in this movie are fantastic because most of them are quite obscure yet very good--perfect for a movie about music gurus. Most of the acting is performed nearly flawlessly. High Fidelity reminds me a lot of Annie Hall both in quality and content (although this one is more post-modern). In fact, you could almost call this a Woody Allen movie without that annoying, neurotic Jewish guy. The plot has numerous twists and turns without seeming busy, and the narrative format is perfect for conveying the personal tribulations that Gordon experiences. I've given High Fidelity a tentative 10. . .almost a nine but the music is so good. This one will surely be a classic sometime.
Review of High Fidelity
