33 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
33 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
just look back two years ago at the coen brothers' comedic gem the big lebowski , change the actors , take away the bowling alley , add a record store , and you've got high fidelity ( or maybe the other way around since nick hornby's novel high fidelity came first ) .
|
|
either way , it's been done before , a trio of losers cracking jokes and complaining about their failed romances , yet it remains consistently funny .
|
|
why is this ?
|
|
maybe because you know your life is much better than this , you know these guys are more pathetic than you are , and you know its ok to laugh at them because they're fictional .
|
|
director stephen frears , possibly not intentionally , has created a movie that makes you feel good about yourself and even that ostensibly no good uncle who watches television twenty four hours a day .
|
|
when watching high fidelity , expect to laugh at someone else's pain , realize what you are laughing at , and then laugh again .
|
|
i laughed at dick ( todd louiso ) , the shy , timorous , steve buscemi character of lebowski , who seems to know what he is talking about but either can't put it into words or is harshly rejected by his friends .
|
|
i laughed at the john goodman character barry ( jack black ) , an exact replica of the comic bookstore owner on the simpsons , pudgy , egotistic , and obnoxious at the same time .
|
|
and i laughed at rob ( john cusack ) , the jeff bridges type , whom the story revolves around .
|
|
rob is the character easiest to relate to , but he is nothing like you at all .
|
|
he uncontrollably cheats and lies , then is unable to realize why he can not hold onto a woman .
|
|
and like his other miserable friends , pop music is where he inevitably goes for comfort .
|
|
he spends the afternoons at his job quizzing his coworkers with obscure trivia or listening to new music and either deriding it or praising it .
|
|
whatever human emotions the clash , aretha franklin , and bruce springsteen records hold , rob and co .
|
|
grasp them and help fill voids in their social lives .
|
|
rob has built an extensive collection in his record store as well as his home and he organizes them depending on what mood he is in .
|
|
during this confused stage of his life in which the movie focuses on , rob is trying to cope with numerous rejections over the years by visiting past girlfriends and eventually asking why they dumped him .
|
|
but these aren't any girlfriends ? these girls made the all time top five break ups in the history of rob ( rob's incessant use of lists show how pop music has played a major role in his life ) .
|
|
the plot in three words is : women and music .
|
|
the approach director stephen frears takes by having the charismatic rob speak directly to the camera is very effective .
|
|
it gives high fidelity a quickly paced , informal structure , adjectives which perfectly parallel rob's own lifestyle .
|
|
it also helps open the viewer's eyes as to how annoying barry is .
|
|
jack black steals the show with a hilariously realistic performance as a total sleaze ball .
|
|
just listening to him speak for five minutes makes the audience immediately sympathetic for rob , who must work with him every day of the week .
|
|
what frears does so well is that he makes us feel sorry for rob while laughing at his misfortunes .
|
|
john cusack plays his character convincingly but it is the strong supporting cast , consisting of big stars and character actors , that really defines rob .
|
|
now instead of rob just talking to the camera , after he explains something , the remaining cast members physically and humorously create what he is trying to say .
|
|
the only problem with high fidelity is that it doesn't end when it should have ended .
|
|
instead the movie goes on for a torturous twenty minutes that seem a lot longer than that .
|
|
also bruce springsteen is completely wasted in a brief cameo halfway through the movie .
|
|
high fidelity is a cheerful , old fashioned comedy with a voluminous soundtrack and as many laughs .
|
|
i just hope hollywood keeps creating losers on the big screen , they make everyone look and feel great .
|