High Fidelity (2000)

Rob, a record store owner and compulsive list maker, recounts his top five breakups, including the one in progress.

Director:

Stephen Frears

Writers:

Nick Hornby (book), D.V. DeVincentis (screenplay)

Stars:

John Cusack, Iben Hjejle, Todd Louiso

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 3 wins & 21 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
John Cusack	...	Rob Gordon
Iben Hjejle	...	Laura
Todd Louiso	...	Dick
Jack Black	...	Barry Judd
Lisa Bonet	...	Marie De Salle
Catherine Zeta-Jones	...	Charlie Nicholson
Joan Cusack	...	Liz
Tim Robbins	...	Ian Raymond
Chris Rehmann	...	Vince
Ben Carr	...	Justin
Lili Taylor	...	Sarah Kendrew
Joelle Carter	...	Penny Hardwick
Natasha Gregson Wagner	...	Caroline Fortis
Shannon Stillo	...	Alison Jr. High
Drake Bell	...	Rob Jr. High

Storyline

Thirty-something Rob Gordon, a former club DJ, owns a not so lucrative used record store in Chicago. He not so much employs Barry and Dick, but rather keeps them around as they showed up at the store one day and never left. All three are vinyl and music snobs, but in different ways. Rob has a penchant for compiling top five lists. The latest of these lists is his top five break-ups, it spurred by the fact that his latest girlfriend, Laura, a lawyer, has just broken up with him. He believed that Laura would be the one who would last, partly as an expectation of where he would be at this stage in his life. Rob admits that there have been a few incidents in their relationship which in and of themselves could be grounds for her to want to break up. To his satisfaction, Laura is not on this top five list. Rob feels a need not only to review the five relationships, which go back as far as middle school when he was twelve, and try to come to terms with why the woman, or girl as the case may ...

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Plot Keywords:

employer employee relationship | two word title | record store | vinyl | thirty something | 

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Taglines:

A comedy about fear of commitment, hating your job, falling in love and other pop favorites.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Music | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some sexuality

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English Danish

Release Date:

31 March 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

Alta fidelidad

Filming Locations:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$6,429,107, 2 April 2000, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$27,277,055, 10 September 2000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Touchstone Pictures, Working Title Films, Dogstar Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Vince and Justin's recording is an actual song titled "The Inside Game" by the American band Royal Trux.

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Goofs

Rob mentions the song "Landslide" while holding up the self-titled Fleetwood Mac album, which it appears on. The cover is similar to the cover for "Rumours", which confused at least one viewer.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Rob: What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?

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Crazy Credits

The main end credits are printed on music-type flyers posted on poles and walls.

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Connections

Referenced in Soloalbum (2003)

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Soundtracks

Cold Blooded Old Times
Written by Bill Callahan (as Bill Callahan)
Performed by Bill Callahan (as Smog)
Courtesy of Drag City

User Reviews

Top 5 Movies About Love and Music

One of my favorite movies, based on one of my favorite books. "High Fidelity" is perfect if you already had a broken heart, and if you tried to heal it with some pop songs.

John Cusack is not acting - he REALLY IS Rob Fleming (Rob Gordon in the movie). If there are doubts about it, I just say that he made the soundtrack compilation and collaborated with the screenplay.

The supporting cast is also perfect. Jack Black and Todd Louiso couldn't be better. Tim Robbins, as the world-music-fan, is a nice surprise, and Joan Cusack is always funny.

It looks like everyone had a lot of fun making this movie, and the result is a nice and funny and full of emotions motion picture, to see again and again and again to remember how music and love can help each other.