Stephen Frears
High Fidelity

"High Fidelity" by Stephen Frears, 2000

Film adaptation of a late '90s bestseller.

A film by Stephen Frears, perhaps now to be considered dated, considering the speed of production of the cinema "factory," but one to be cherished in your personal home film library.

Released in 2000, a light and well-balanced film, between emotional tension and uproarious laughter, and lots and lots of music (the kind for connoisseurs!). And the title already provides us with this element.

Everything takes place in Chicago inside a record store, Championship Vinyl, where strange characters wander, all united by an unbridled passion for music of all genres. Here, the owner, Rob Gordon (J. Cusack), lives his love tragedy when his girlfriend Laura, with whom he cohabitated, leaves him for an odd neighbor. The abandonment will push him to dig up all his romantic failures and rank the most important love stories of his life.

Based on the novel by Nick Hornby, published in '95, but with a different setting: here the story takes place in North London and is told in the first person by the protagonist. The story is well expressed on the big screen through witty and emotional monologues by Cusack, who looks straight into the camera. This and many other elements make High Fidelity an excellent example of film adaptation of literary texts, this time curated by Cusack himself, along with De Vincentis and Steve Pink.

The true protagonists of the film are the Top Five, which are included in every dialogue and every key moment of the narrative. Rob works at the store with an eccentric and mismatched pair of friends (the bald Louiso and the frenetic Black), obviously "vinyl maniacs," who do nothing but argue over compiling their respective top-fives or simply over the right pick for a Monday morning compilation. The method of musical classification drags Rob on a journey into the past, in search of the reasons that each time led to the end of his stories: from the fundamental first kiss (at eight years old in the school playground), to the seminal relationship during college years with an exuberant Catherine Zeta-Jones in the role of the beautiful and independent girl.

A film attentive to details and structurally driven by the 59 hints of famous and less-known songs that give the narrative a particular dynamism and an engaging rhythm that demands attention. Filled with classic tensions and reflections typical of the thirties generation, constantly suspended between the search for stability, new adventures, and the rejection of any kind of responsibility.

Enjoyable and engaging film for typical evenings to spend at home with friends, beer, and pizza.