Film Review: "High Fidelity".

It may be a very subjective thing, but what makes "High Fidelity" my third-favorite film of all time is how much I immensely, incredibly, amazingly relate to the character of Rob Gordon - an opinion of mine about my similarities to the character that I'm known for pointing out quite often to friends who are mutually familiar with the story. The several most obvious traits shared between the two of us:

1) We've been dumped more than average.

2) We love to talk to anyone willing to listen (Usually to ourselves, in our heads, or in any self-controlled medium - like the news column that the character begins to work on near the ending of the film or my blog).

3) We're both passionate about the artforms that we love: For Rob, it's critiquing music; For myself, it's storytelling.

4) To our faults, we tend to view the people in our lives as characters in stories where we're the main character, opposed to human beings themselves.

5) We're both referred to as "elitists" by our contemporaries in short amounts of time.

6) We both compulsively make lists of everything.

7) There's only one girl from our pasts who we respectively can't get over no matter how hard we try.

Conversely, the film is a critical darling after so many years for a simple reason: It has a simple plot with complex characters, while most films which fail to meet the mark are the polar opposite. Rob Gordon, played by John Cusack, is the everyman. He wants nothing more than to find love, do what he loves to do, and receive the appreciation that he feels he deserves for all of his efforts in every area of his life. The problem? His business isn't going anywhere and neither are his relationships - both platonic and romantic. The major question implied about Rob by the script and it's characters is also one of simplicity: Perhaps he's the gargantuan problem that he's been trying to fix all along.

The majority of the film centers upon Rob introspectively looking for higher meaning in his life in the wake of his most recent and stinging breakup from his latest ex-girlfriend Laura. He tries his best to cope, at first, simply by obsessing over his great love of music but when even that fails him for the first time, he ventures on a trek to locate every member on his self-described "top-five exes of all-time" list, which takes the audience to equally dramatic and comedic places in only a matter of less than two hours. Through the midst, it becomes objectively clearer to us that Rob is not the innocent victim that his woe-is-me narration would've led us on to believe, had there been no one else there to set the record straight on numerous occasions. 

While the film has a very strong story to rely on in a bare-bones form, it's the chemistry between the cast that injects it with such distinctive vibrancy: From Rob's often-comedic best friends Barry and Dick who act as Rob's foils, to his empathetic no-strings-attached dynamic with musician Marie DeSalle, to his subtle and frayed relationship with the mysterious Laura who's progressing her career as a successful lawyer, each character teaches Rob the very same lesson by the end of the story to the point where the character is truly not the same person who he was at the beginning of his journey - as is the age-old trademark of any great story. The lesson: The vitality of dedication, if not to a person then to an idea at least.

Known as a modern-day male anthem to love stories, both as a novel and film, "High Fidelity" is what I'm confident will become a classic to be featured somewhere on the list of required viewings in film schools, the world across, someday.

Rating: 5/5