Product Details

• Actors: John Cusack, Iben Hjejle, Todd Louiso, Jack Black, Lisa Bonet
• Directors: Stephen Frears
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: Danish, English
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Walt Disney Video
• VHS Release Date: November 28, 2000
• Run Time: 114 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (280 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 630595805X
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #21,218 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Transplanted from England to the not-so-mean streets of Chicago, the screen adaptation of Nick Hornby's cult-classic novel High Fidelity emerges unscathed from its Americanization, idiosyncrasies intact, thanks to John Cusack's inimitable charm and a nimble, nifty screenplay (cowritten by Cusack). Early-thirtysomething Rob Gordon (Cusack) is a slacker who owns a vintage record shop, a massive collection of LPs, and innumerable top-five lists in his head. At the opening of the film, Rob recounts directly to the audience his all-time top-five breakups--which doesn't include his recent falling out with his girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle), who has just moved out of their apartment. Thunderstruck and obsessed with Laura's desertion (but loath to admit it), Rob begins a quest to confront the women who instigated the aforementioned top-five breakups to find out just what he did wrong.

Low on plot and high on self-discovery, High Fidelity takes a good 30 minutes or so to find its groove (not unlike Cusack's Grosse Pointe Blank), but once it does, it settles into it comfortably and builds a surprisingly touching momentum. Rob is basically a grown-up version of Cusack's character in Say Anything (who was told "Don't be a guy--be a man!"), and if you like Cusack's brand of smart-alecky romanticism, you'll automatically be won over (if you can handle Cusack's almost-nonstop talking to the camera). Still, it's hard not to be moved by Rob's plight. At the beginning of the film he and his coworkers at the record store (played hilariously by Jack Black and Todd Louiso) seem like overgrown boys in their secret clubhouse; by the end, they've grown up considerably, with a clear-eyed view of life. Ably directed by Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons), High Fidelity features a notable supporting cast of the women in Rob's life, including the striking, Danish-born Hjejle, Lisa Bonet as a sultry singer-songwriter, and the triumphant triumvirate of Lili Taylor, Joelle Carter, and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Rob's ex-girlfriends. With brief cameos by Tim Robbins as Laura's new, New Age boyfriend and Bruce Springsteen as himself. --Mark Englehart

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Watch it twice. At least., September 15, 2000

By	Mr B T Thacker (London, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: High Fidelity (DVD)

It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't seen High Fidelity, or even someone who's just seen it once, how incredibly good it is. Take first the phenomenal John Cusack, who seems to make any film he appears in twice as watchable. Is there a more underrated leading man in this decade? I doubt it.

Then take into account the amazing support, knowns and unknowns - Cusack's sister Joan, Tim Robbins, Jack Black, etc. - even Zeta-Jones isn't half bad. Consider too the script, which is surprisingly faithful to Nick Hornby's (very good) book, and gives equal measure to comic and tragic relief.

Fianlly, the soundtrack. Can there be any greater song to sum up Rob Thomas (John Cusack's) final revelation after the film ends than Stevie Wonder's I Believe? No. High Fidelity is the complete package - funny, touching, well-acted, scripted, directed, scored for, and unbelievably true to life.

And for all those sad Englishmen writing in to complain that the movie should have been set in Britian - get real. I thank you.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Cusack, November 17, 2004

By	D. Roberts "Hadrian12" (Battle Creek, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: High Fidelity (DVD)

If ever there was a movie that could be construed as an allegorical representation of my life, this is it. If ever there was a Romantic Comedy written primarily for men (as opposed to women & couples), this is it!

John Cusack plays your typical everyday kind of guy who just so happens to have the absolute WORST luck with women. Stability in his personal life is ever elusive and he continues to get dumped by the women he dates. Typically he is ditched because the girl "meets another guy, and....."

Like most men, Cusack's character wants to have things both ways. He wants to have continuity in his life, yet the idea of commitment scares the tar out of him. What if he takes that giant leap but isn't able to make it to the other side of the canyon? What if he meets an even more worthwhile girl 2 days after getting married? Ah, the variables of relationships that we men torture ourselves with.

Aside from the venerable Cusack the film also features Catherine Zeta Jones as the paridigmatic "perfect" girl who is continually just-out-of-reach for we mere mortals. She sizzles in her role and it's obvious that she relished the chance to play a sort of Supermodel-type girl who is a femme fatale.

There is a hilarious scene of Cusack's persona standing in the rain outside her home that perhaps every single heterosexual male will be able to relate to (from one point of his life or other). A nice touch in the story is how they bring out the fact that old boyfriends are incessantly contacting her to find out why she dumped them.

If you're interested in watching a Romantic Comedy that's a bit bleaker than most, this one might be for you. If you're a male like me who has undergone myriad rejections in his life, this DVD is a MUST see. For men like myself stories don't get too much more cathartic than this one!

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Top 5 Reasons For Watching This Movie!, February 3, 2002

By	Ian Creamer (Dublin,Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: High Fidelity (DVD)

My top 5 reasons as to why this is a must see film are as follows;
1)The story-The character played by John Cusack has reached his late 20's and he's just split up with his girlfriend of the past 2 years.He owns a 2nd hand record store and he's struggling to survive financially.His best frined are 2 fellow music loving eccentrics with whom he has this sort of love hate relationship.He knows he's coming to an age where he should maybe think of settling down and start making concrete plans for a secure future,yet he's been living in some sort of denial.It's the break up of this relationship that makes him suddenly question the way his life has been going.This is portrayed through the various scenes in the film but it's also totally original in the way that Cusack delivers this really funny yet at times pitiful narrative to the camera in a way that puts everything going on around him in a state of freeze-frame.He goes through the pain of trying to sort out his life during the course of the film.

2)Comedy-There are some really funny moments in the movie.The main character Cusack himself is a witty and yet comically pitiful figure.Even better are the two sidekicks he works with.They are musical snobs and the scenes in the record store are often hilarious as they deal with the less "musically-educated" customers who come to the store.One middle-aged customer who comes in to buy Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called To Say..." is dealt with in the funniest put-down manner imaginable.The contrast between his two assistants is also a source of amusement.The cameos by Tim Robbins and Bruce Sprinsteen are also hilarious-especially Robbins who is a high-flying,world music loving,martial arts expert who also looks like some sort of new age hippy and worst of all he's living with Laura,Cusack's ex-girlfriend.The scene where he confronts Cusack in the record store is totall original and is also hilarious.

3)The Girlfriends-Cusack decides to give you a glimpse of his past life by telling us his worst 5 break ups in his life.Each one is so different and it goes from the time he was in 7th grade right up to current events.He tries to meet up with all these girls again to see if there's a pattern in to where he's going wrong-usually ending up in hilarious and unexpected consequences.

4)The Music-Well it's really good.As you'd expect from the owner of a 2nd hand record store it's not your average commercial stuff but a wide range of classics and alt from the 60's through to modern times.At one stage Cusack says "I'm going to now sell 5 copies of The Beta Bands 3 E.P's".As someone who often frequents record stores myself the scene was just so accurate as the customers hear this wonderful track for the first time and immediately go from just nodding their heads in rhtyhm to the music to enquiring as to who it is?Straight after the movie I dug out my own copy of the c.d. and started to play it again for the first time in years.

5)The top 5 lists-this was a particularly strong element in Nick Hornby's book from which the film is based.It's not only the variety of lists from funeral music,to break-up tracks-but it's also the way they are compiled,the useless trivia that precludes certain items,the arguments and dissing of other people's choices.It's the sort of useless arguments that many groups of guys of that age spend hours upon hours discussing.

All in all this is a really enjoyable movie.It's funny and it also has a "feel good" factor to it without being cringe inducing in a Forest Gump way.