High Fidelity - DVD Review

MOVIE
VIDEO
AUDIO
EXTRAS
OVERALL

One Disc
1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen

English Dolby Digital 5.1
English & Spanish Subtitles
Original Theatrical Trailer
Deleted Scenes
Interviews
Run Time: 114 Minutes
Keep Case

MOVIE
Rated R for profanity, brief nudity and sex

Romantic comedies are rarely ugly. I'm not talking There's Something About Mary ugly. I'm talking emotionally ugly. Exposed wound ugly. But the truth of romance is often ugly situations happening in ugly moments by generally not ugly people. That's what makes it worth fighting for, I guess. Especially bad are those who feel directionless, that there's no destination for them, because they often don't know how to be great, so they've decided not to care about being good. High Fidelity struck a chord with me. A big one. I can't recall, before this film, seeing a hero who seemingly works so hard to be the anti-hero in the film. John Cusack's Rob Gordon is nearly a diametric opposite to the Lloyd Dobbler, the character he played in Cameron Crowe's Say Anything. . . That character was optimistic and deep down very good and allowed his life to flow in the direction it was going. Rob Gordon is depressed and depressing, bringing nearly everyone down with his own self loathing, clawing his way through relationships and friendships in the hope that for a fleeting moment everything will be okay, but not willing to do much to get there. This is a dark period, a bad patch.
So, the story is about Rob, seconds after breaking up with his long time girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle) working through his all time top five breakups in his mind. Rob owns a record store called Championship Vinyl that he runs with the (loosely used term) help of Dick (the understated to the point of sickly Todd Louiso) and Barry (Jack Black in one of those performances that is SO FAR over the top that it somehow completes a full circle and is believable again). Rob, believing that it'll help him learn why he can't survive in relationships, decides to track down the all time top five breakups girls and see what went wrong with them.
This is a vehicle for introspection that causes the viewer to look inside themselves. I think that those who can't deal with the movie are likely those who identify most with Rob's selfish philandering past, and see a little of Rob in themselves. I know how that identification can feel. I saw a lot of Rob in myself. I've felt his directionless misery, I've watched myself do horrible things to nice people. It's not a happy place, but it's a realistic place. Because I revel in the fact that both Rob and myself made it out the other side and things are all gonna be okay. Depression is as fleeting as the depressed would have you believe happiness is. High Fidelity is an ass kick of a film, one that slaps you upside the head and shows you the depths of darkness to which a romantic comedy can go and so rarely does. That's why there's never ever been a "Dark Romantic Comedy" sub-genre. Maybe there should be. It's more honest.

VIDEO QUALITY
High Fidelity looks just good, and I'm not sure why that is. It's grainy and muted and I don't remember it looking like that in the theater. The blacks are occasionally grayed and the color scheme fairly basic. That being said, nothing blows out, there are occasional scenes, such as the closing titles, that show a dynamic range of color and blacks, but overall, this transfer leaves something to be desired. It is presented in its original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 Anamorphic widescreen.

AUDIO QUALITY
The audio is good and great at times, specifically when the songs kick in. This is a song driven movie and they are full and deep as they fill the surrounds making one wish for a songs only track on the DVD. When the songs are through, though, the film returns to a fairly basic but well-defined front and center style presentation only occasionally going to the rears for added emphasis or effect. The rain scenes have rear activity.

EXTRAS
Oh why do people who want to talk about the movie so much, such as Stephen Frears and John Cusack decide not to do commentary. All's okay, though because we have quite a few short little interviews with the pair about the making of the film from script to screen. The interviews are great, informative and worth the time, though again one wonders why they didn't just stick them all together into a longer featurette. Secondly, we have a host of nine deleted scenes with cameos by Harold Ramis delightfully as Rob's father and Beverly D'Angelo as a woman with an expensive record collection. The deleted scenes are those rare scenes on a DVD that you wish were still in the film.

CLOSING THOUGHTS
In one of the deleted scenes, after the scene in the film where Rob reveals his four pieces of information that led to the demise of his relationship with Laura, Rob says to the audience that this may seem pretty terrible, but asks them to make a list of the worst things they've done, things that no one know about, and then decide if what he did was any worse. That's a moment that should've stayed in the film. But it sums it up. YES, Rob does terrible things in this film! YES, it's possible to hate him! But he's human above all. And is anything he's done that much worse than what we have, or almost have. No. And that's why it's possible to love Rob Gordon, maybe not as much as we loved Lloyd Dobbler, but it's a start.