My last movie review for the Easter Weekend is HIgh Fidelity, what you could call a Romantic Comedy starring John Cusack. Cusack plays Rob Gordon, a twenty-something record store owner currently having relationship problems with his girlfriend Laura, played by Iben Hjejle. Rob is fond of top 5 lists and wonders why none of his previous relationships have worked out.

A goot part of the movie deals with his previous top 4 relationship disasters, as we are shown little summaries and then when Rob tries to track them down so he can interrogate them as to why they dumped him. In the movie there's also Dick and Barry, played by Todd Louiso and Jack Black, the two record store employees (the store is called Championship Vinyl, and by the name you can tell that it caters to older material and some way alternate current music). Dick is the balding introvert into the alternate music scene, while Barry is the loud-mouthed opinionated extrovert who's more into the older classics.

I'm not going to be able to give much of a summary for the movie because, frankly, even though I saw it yesterday (as I'm writing this), I don't really remember the movie. It skips around a lot, not so much in terms of scenes but in terms of what Rob is doing. He tries to deal with his girlfriend, then he tries ignoring her, then he's focusing on the record store, then the hot new artist (Marie DeSalle, played by Lisa Bonet)...

The mood and direction changes so much that I had a hard time staying focused on the movie. I went from liking Rob to hating him to thinking he was a jerk to sympathizing with his plight, all in the course of a few minutes. It didn't help that I didn't really like Laura -- it was like "why is Rob chasing after Laura?". One of the few (maybe only as I can't think of any others off the top of my head) romantic movies where I just didn't care what happened to their relationship.

That's not to say that HIgh Fidelity is a bad movie. I went with three other people and one was enthusiastic while the other two liked it. John Cusack is a good actor and he certainly talks a lot in this movie. The movie has a lot of smartness and idiosyncratic characters and some good points and observations on life. But I just couldn't get into the movie.

And maybe this is because I was expecting too much. I actually thought this would be more of a romantic movie. There's actually a lot of introspection as Rob comes to grip with his basic failings as a person. I kept expecting Rob to not be such a jerk, and for Laura to say or do something that would show me why Rob found her desirable. (Rob does go into what he likes about Laura, but it's a soliloquy and not the same as showing me).

And I suppose that points up to the basic problem of the movie for me. It's too much about Rob talking to the audience about all these little subjects going through his mind. It's more appropriate to a book (which the movie is based on) format than to a movie format. Maybe radio would also be good. But visually there's not much to hold my attention.

Now we come to the part where I try to relate where I've seen one of the actors in the movie. John Cusack I've seen in Sixteen Candles, which I liked although he was a supporting character. Grosse Pointe Blank is another good movie and he starred in that one. Con Air he was a supporting character. The Thin Red Line, a boring war movie that's way too introspective. Pushing Tin, which was an ok relationship movie that Cusack starred in. And that's all I've seen him in.

While I'm at it I might as well look up what movies John has appeared with his sister Joan. High Fidelity, Cradle Will Rock, Grosse Point Blank, Sixteen Candles, Class, I think that's it. Joan hasn't made as many movies, although she's six years older.

Can I recommend this movie? Well, not wholeheartedly. It's quirky enough (and not necessarily in a good way) that I think people will either love it or hate it. It's not a movie for everyone, so I can only recommend it if you like John Cusack.