High Fidelity

High Fidelity
March 31, 2000
Touchstone
Comedy, Romance
DVD
A

As I said in my review of the book, http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2013/09/high-fidelity.html, this is an example of how sometimes the movie is better than the book.  I have seen this movie in a revival theater with a very appreciative crowd and I have seen it by myself, and I think I've seen it with one or two boyfriends.  It remains wise, silly, romantic, cynical, and endlessly quotable.  ("Kathleen Turner Overdrive" is funnier in itself than the average full-length comedy, and that's just one throwaway gag.)  Now that I have my own (failing) business, I can appreciate the film on yet another level.  The performances are great, not just those I tagged but just about everyone in the movie.  But, yes, John Cusack, who also co-wrote and co-produced the film, manages to be Everyman and a music geek at the same time.  His sister Joan is perfect as his sort of ex's friend Liz.  Jack Black gives a tour de force (and force of nature) performance as over-the-top Barry (one of the "musical moron twins" who work in Rob's store).  And Tim Robbins, in a ponytail, hits just the right notes as Ian/Ray.

In fact, the film is so wonderful I really don't know what to add except that I thoroughly enjoyed it.  As with the other two A's (Some Like It Hot and Groundhog Day), I don't know what would make it into an A+.  Maybe if the ending were a little tighter (or rather the lead-up to it), since it feels like the movie is going to have a neat Hollywood ending, but then it changes gears to give a more complex and happier ending.  This is a quibble though, and I could make others, but if the film teaches us anything it's that things don't have to be perfect to be wonderful.

Marilyn Dodds Frank plays Alison's Mom and would be Woman Who Bought Television in The 40-Year-Old Virgin.  Penny Marshall allegedly is one of the people at the funeral.

Note, as with my book blog, I'm using "2000s" to mean anything from Y2K onward, because I honestly haven't even seen that many new movies in the last few years, so I understandably don't own many from the current decade.