Today I’ll be looking at the 1995 novel High Fidelity by Nick Hornby and its film adaptation High Fidelity starring John Cusack released in 2000.
Which is better – the movie or the book?
The Book:
Rob is a thirty-something record store owner who has just been dumped by his long-term girlfriend Laura. After she leaves, Rob makes a list of his worst five breakups, and then gets in touch with each of them in order to figure out why they didn’t want to be with him.
Unfortunately, we’re off to a bad start as Rob is one of those characters that annoy me… Yet, I still want to keep reading his story. In the same way that I absolute detest any book or film that tries to romanticise leaving someone at the altar, I also dislike characters that act victimised when they are being hypocritical. Rob does this. He is absolutely furious with his ex girlfriend for getting a new boyfriend, even though he was the one that cheated while they were together. We are supposed to sympathise with Rob, yet I’m absolutely frustrated with the way he treats his girlfriend. We were on a break!
Rob is the ‘original’ hipster. He sees himself as an arbiter of taste, and scorns anyone who listens to music he deems bad. I know so many of these people. He’s willing to let a sale opportunity slip in order to keep a cliental the way he likes it. Music is more important to him than human relationships and he can only understand his feelings when there is an adequate song about it.
Rob reminds me of one of my university lecturers. Something about his choices in favourite films and music makes me roll my eyes – it’s very typical. I remember vividly my first year at uni being criticised for calling myself a huge film fan but then listing ‘Legally Blonde’ in my top ten favourite films. The boys in my class (and teacher) were very depreciating of me and claimed that to have that on my list proves that I’m not a real fan of cinema. I completely disagree. I think if your top 5 favourite film resembles Rob’s:
1. The Godfather
2. The Godfather Part II
3. Taxi Driver
4. Goodfellas
5. Reservoir Dogs
that doesn’t make you better or more aware of a good film. That top 5 list is typical for someone who wants to impress you with their knowledge of a ‘good’ film. They are great films, but where is the personality? Where is the one unique film that represents something to you? I pick films that I think are great, not because someone has told me they’re great, but because I really like them. Now, my list of favourite films does have some critically acclaimed classics (Singin’ in the Rain being my number 1) but I don’t want my list to impress anyone… my list is for me. Those boys in my uni class can go fly a kite. Hipsters be hipping.
As a ‘person of the female species’ Rob is a frustrating character to read, as he constantly comes out with some real corkers of opinions about the opposite sex:
– Rob is appalled that women haven’t turned out the way he expected: “I never really recovered from the shock of discovering that women do what we do: they save their best pairs for the nights when they know they are going to sleep with somebody.” (page. 37).
– He is irritated by his long term relationship because he misses her putting in an effort to see him.
– He was annoyed that “when she came home, she came home because she lived in my flat… and when we went out, she sometimes dressed up and sometimes didn’t, depending on where we were going, but again, it was nothing whatsoever to do with me” (page. 80).
– He thinks sex is unfair for men because they have so much to worry about, and apparently all women have to worry about is cellulite. Rude.
– He admits he won’t just tell Laura he loves her because just saying it gives her the upper hand. He wants to make her work for it and feel as though she earned it because then he has regained control. Wow 1995 – glad I spent all of you wearing sloppy joes and watching Captain Planet.
– When he finally gets back in contact with his “the one” Charlie, he ends up getting annoyed with all of her quirks he used to worship. Then he attributes all his failures to her dumping him “This is the woman who broke my heart, ruined my life, this woman is single-handedly responsible for my poverty and directionlessness and failure…” (pg. 146).
– He believes the role of the boyfriend is to educate their girlfriends musically so that they realises why they shouldn’t like who they like, and why they should like what he likes.
– He is frustrated because he thought finding a long term partner would be like Dusty Springfield singing ‘The Look of Love’ because he was going to find “this sexy woman with a sexy voice and lots of sexy eye make-up whose devotion to me shone from every pore… forget it. As mythical as the exotic underwear.” (Page 209). He calls this lack of romance, utter devotion and effort put in by all the females in his life “disrespect”.
– Then the pièce de résistance ….“It’s supposed to be women who allow themselves to become isolated by relationships” by liking the guys friends, doing the guys things, etc. But Rob has realised that he liked Laura’s life better and without her, he actually isn’t anybody really.
I think this is a book for boys.
The Film:
High Fidelity is yet another fine example of a movie starring sibling duo John and Joan Cusack – my personal favourite being 16 Candles. But in this film they had some interaction, and I really enjoyed their chemistry on screen.
Normally it would irritate me that a British novel was transferred to America for the film adaptation, but in this case I think it was a smooth transition. The nuts and bolts of the novel stay the same, but the music infused location is changed from London to Chicago. John Cusack did a great job as the depressive but witty Rob, and I adored Jack Black’s interpretation of Barry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc3TYIIpOZM&feature=fvwrel
John Cusack breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience a lot. I can’t imagine how they could have done it otherwise; the book has such much inner monologue stuff it would have been difficult without to convey Rob’s feelings and stuff.
There is an overwhelming amount of music mentioned, played, referenced, etc in this film. Rob, Dick and Barry would hate me because I didn’t really recognise any of the ‘good’ music. The film only slightly touches on the debates about taste which Hornby emphasises in the book. While the novel includes an epiphany for Rob about his high and mighty attitude about music taste, the movie never digs deeper into the issue.
There is an incredibly funny scene in the book where Rob imagines himself telling off Laura’s new boyfriend (Tim Robbins) in a variety of ways, and it is made even funnier in this adaptation. I cannot separate Tim Robbins from Andy Dufresne because I adore Shawshank Redemption, so watching John Cusack beat him to a pulp made for some interesting viewing. The style of this film is a bit random, but I felt that it complimented the character of Rob as his emotions bounced all over the place. It feels almost like director Stephen Frears was trying to make the movie resemble one of Rob’s mixtapes, which unlike Barney Stinson’s ‘Get Psyched’ mix, knows how to rise and fall.
What I did:
My first semester of uni we were studying ‘taste’ in one of my courses; I think it was CULT1110 Film, Media and Culture. Our lecturer Marj Kibby showed us two clips from this film; the first where Jack Black plays ‘Walking on Sunshine’ and the second where he yells at a customer for having bad taste. I remember her mentioning there was a novel, and so the next time I saw it at the shops I bought a copy to read on the bus to work. It took me a long while to find the movie afterwards, as my local video store doesn’t really stock anything unless it stars Rob Schneider.
What you should do:
Watch the film – – – I was going to say read the book, but I feel so angry after writing this blog entry because of Rob that I feel like I can’t recommend it for the sake of womankind. So see the film just for Jack Black’s exuberance up against John Cusack’s antipathy. Plus Joan Cusack calling her brother a F’ing Assole always brightens up my day.
cinebrary 