High Fidelity A Movie Review	MPAA Rated - R It's 1:47 Long A Review by The Dude on the Right

"High Fidelity" is based on a book by the same name, except set in Chicago rather than London as the book is set. And since I don’t read, I can’t tell you a think about how they relate. But the story of the movie is a little like this:

Rob, played by one of my favoritist actors, John Cusack, owns a record store. Yep, vinyl, those kind with the one groove, the kind you need a record player for, and he’s kind of a list guy. He’s got a top five for everything, especially music. But this movie is about his top five break-ups, because Laura (Iben Hjejle) just broke up with him. So, we get a movie about a tormented, heart-broken, 30-something dude who, even though he owns this record store, doesn’t seem to have a direction for his life.

So you’ve got a story of break-ups, and it’s a long story, tracing the steps of each of those break-ups, and how Rob has reached that retrospective point in his life when he just really wants to know why things didn’t work out with the ladies. With a little prodding from Bruce Springsteen in a dream sequence, he begins to search out those old girlfriends and find out what really went wrong. In doing so Rob realized that some of the break-ups were his fault, some were nobody’s fault, and some it was probably good it didn’t work out even if the babe is Catherine Zeta-Jones. And around Rob’s quest we have his record store with two employees that couldn’t be more opposite. You’ve got the quiet dude, Dick (Todd Louiso), always seeming to try and help but the kind of dude you just want to tell to shut-up but can’t because his intentions are so, well, well intentioned. Then you’ve got Barry (Jack Black), who will tell you things straight up, but you probably don’t want to hear, like his list of five best Laura’s dad dying songs to which he re-does the lyrics for "The Night Chicago Died" to "The Night Laura’s Dad Died." It seems mean, but you know he still cares in a twisted sort of way.

So, "High Fidelity" is the story of relationships, narrated by John Cusack directly into the camera, which surprisingly works really well. And John is good in it, really good, and the movie doesn’t get too mushy and stupid like most romantic comedies. And for that I should probably like it more than I think I did. It’s a story more than movie, and as much as I don’t read, I think it might be a better read than a movie, but it still had a lot of redeeming qualities, but it’s not the comedy I sort of expected. I guess that’s my own fault.

So, a comedy that’s not really a comedy, and a romantic story that isn’t mushy. The more I think about it, the more I liked the movie, but I’ll warn you not to go into it thinking it’s all laughs, because it’s not. There’s a lot of analysis of relationships, some of it kind of funny, and some of it kind of revealing, and as a 30 something dude, there’s a lot in Rob’s life that I can relate to. I was thinking of only giving the movie 3 ½ stars, but the more I think about it, it’s a better movie than that, but you’ve got to not be expecting your run of the mill romantic comedy because that it ain’t. And as I remember the scene with Ian (Tim Robbins) in the record store, the scene where I nearly spit soda on the head of the guy in front of me, I’ve got to add a star. With that it’s 4 ½ stars out of 5 for "High Fidelity." See, sometimes just writing about a movie can make me understand it better. I hope it helps you.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!