High Fidelity [Blu-ray]

Director: Stephen Frears Stephen Frears

Overview

A man discovers that there's more to love than a good mixed tape in this dramatic comedy about music and relationships. Rob (John Cusack), an obsessive record collector in his mid-thirties, is struggling to reconcile his adolescent enthusiasm for pop music with adult responsibilities and a more mature outlook. He runs a record shop with his friends Barry (Jack Black) and Dick (Todd Louiso), who are known to drive away customers whose taste in music doesn't match their exacting standards -- which may have something to do with why the shop is losing money. But Rob's biggest problem is his failing relationship with Laura (Iben Hjejle), a lawyer who needs more out of the relationship than Rob is capable of giving. To Rob's horror, Laura starts dating Ian (Tim Robbins), his upstairs neighbor, known throughout the building for his long and noisy sex sessions. Rob, on the other hand, finds himself catching the attention of singer/songwriter Marie DeSalle (Lisa Bonet), as he tries to deal with his breakup by tracking down his previous ex-girlfriends and taking a fresh look at what he's been doing wrong. Based on the acclaimed novel by Nick Hornby, High Fidelity also features Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lili Taylor, and Joelle Carter as three of Rob's ex-lovers, and Sara Gilbert as Dick's new girlfriend, who gets a crash course in U.K. punk bands that influenced Green Day.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/07/2012
UPC:	0786936825794
Original Release:	2000
Rating:	R
Source:	Touchstone / Disney
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:54:00
Sales rank:	8,690

Special Features

Conversations with Writer/Co-Writer John Cusack and Director Stephen Frears; Deleted Scenes

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

John Cusack	Rob Gordon,Liz,Minister,Party Guest
Iben Hjejle	Laura
Todd Louiso	Dick
Jack Black	Barry
Lisa Bonet	Marie De Salle
Tim Robbins	Ian
Lili Taylor	Sarah
Sara Gilbert	Anaugh
Bruce Springsteen	Himself
Catherine Zeta-Jones	Charlie
Chris Rehmann	Vince
Ben Carr	Justin
Joelle Carter	Penny
Natasha Gregson Wagner	Caroline
Shannon Stillo	Alison Jr. High
Drake Bell	Rob Jr. High
Laura Whyte	Laura's Mom
Rich Talarico	Barry's Customer
Matt O'Neill	Beta Band Customer
Brian Powell	Middle Aged Customer
Margaret Travolta	Rob's Mom
Jill Peterson	Laura's Sister Jo
Susan Yoo	19-year-old Girl
Chris Bauer	Paul
K.K. Dodds	Miranda
Marilyn Dodds Frank	Alison's Mom
Duke Doyle	Kevin Bannister
Aaron Himelstein	Boy in Park
Jonathan Herrington	Chris Thompson
Daniel Lee Smith	Rock Guy,Party Guest
Leah Gale	Mourner
David Darlow	Mourner
Erik Gundersen	Marco
Alex Desert	Louis
Alan S. Johnson	Man In Store
Ian Belknap	Party Guest
Andrew Micheli	Party Guest
Polly Noonan	Party Guest
Michele Graff	Party Guest
Liam Hayes	Piano Player
Damian Rogers	Greenday Girl
Robert A. Villanueva	Skateboarder
Joe Spaulding	Flea Market Musician
Scott A. Martin	Bartender
Heather Norris	Laura's Friend
Marc Busey	Club Kid
Beverly D'Angelo	Too Tan Woman
Howard Shore	Composer
Carter Burwell	Composer

Technical Credits

Scott Rosenberg

D. V. DeVincentis

Steve Pink

John Cusack

Stephen Frears	Director
Sam Barkan	Special Effects
Tim Bevan	Producer
Liza Chasin	Executive Producer,Producer
Alan Greenspan	Executive Producer
Mike Newell	Executive Producer,Producer
Rudd Simmons	Producer
Victoria Thomas	Casting
Scott Rosenberg	Screenwriter
D. V. DeVincentis	Screenwriter,Producer
Steve Pink	Screenwriter
John Cusack	Producer,Screenwriter
Petur Hliddal	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Inspired casting and a clever narrative strategy make Stephen Frears's adaptation of Nick Hornby's wry cult novel an unexpected triumph that never loses the voice of the book's protagonist -- or the hilarious musical obsessions that make this one of the best music movies this side of Spinal Tap. With his ordinary-guy appeal, John Cusack is a natural as Hornby's underachieving hero, Rob -- a 30-something owner of a failing record store whose lawyer girlfriend has just left him when the story opens. Rob spends the rest of the movie on a funny and poignant quest to understand why his life -- particularly his love life -- has not turned out like a pop song. Cusack, who cowrote the film, changes the novel's London setting to his native Chicago, and the transition works surprisingly well. Frears preserves the charm of the book's first-person narrative by having Cusack talk directly to the camera; it's a device that could have been cloying, but the actor pulls it off with flying colors. Everyone in the cast is terrific, but Rob's dysfunctional record shop assistants -- Todd Louiso as the hopelessly geeky Dick and the unstoppable Jack Black as the aggressively obnoxious Barry -- are the real show stealers. The scenes where they sit around compiling endless "Top Ten" lists of everything from songs to dream jobs are comic perfection. As for the hip soundtrack that Cusack helped assemble -- well, it's everything even the most die-hard fans of the book could have hoped for.

Barnes & Noble - Kryssa Schemmerling

At face value, High Fidelity looks like a movie about the girl troubles of a 30-something record collector obsessing over his most recent breakup, but just below the surface is a witty but knowing story about a man slowly waking up to the fact that he's been emotionally stuck in adolescence and realizes it's time to start acting like an adult (which means accepting the knowledge that there's more to know about his partner than what records she likes). Nick Hornby's original novel was a clever, slyly intelligent book about people whose lives have been both shaped and reflected by popular culture, and director Stephen Frears and producer/co-screenwriter/leading man John Cusack have more than honored their source material. While one doesn't have to be a music buff to enjoy the movie, they've packed the film with enough knowing musical references to satisfy even the most jaded hipster; anyone who has spent much time in a used record store will feel right at home at Rob's shop, Championship Vinyl. And though Cusack's performance -- funny and charming but with enough bile to give him a few sharp edges -- dominates the film, Frears is more than generous with the supporting cast, especially Jack Black and Todd Louiso, who, as Barry and Dick, hilariously play id and superego to Rob's barely contained middle ground. Tim Robbins delivers a brief but superb turn as the annoyingly even-tempered Ian, and Iben Hjejle is engaging as Laura, who seems almost too sensible to be living with Rob (though we can certainly see why he wants her around). If High Fidelity sometimes seems to tell viewers more than they might want to know about the obsessions of its characters, Frears and Cusack have also given Rob just enough depth that he seems genuine and believable, and there's a lot to be learned from his struggles with romance and maturity -- even if you don't know (or care) how much a French pressing of Captain Beefheart's Safe As Milk fetches these days.

All Movie Guide - Mark Deming