Rob, a record store owner and compulsive list maker, recounts his top five breakups, including the one in progress.Rob, a record store owner and compulsive list maker, recounts his top five breakups, including the one in progress.Rob, a record store owner and compulsive list maker, recounts his top five breakups, including the one in progress.Rob, a record store owner and compulsive list maker, recounts his top five breakups, including the one in progress.Rob, a record store owner and compulsive list maker, recounts his top five breakups, including the one in progress.
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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 be, left him, but also, in the words of Charlie Nicholson, number four on the list, "what it all means" for why he has ended up where he is, which is nowhere, personally or professionally, close to what he envisioned. He also has to come to terms with what it means that Laura has moved on to Ian Raymond, a man for who neither had any respect when they were together.
Top review
Sharp, funny, and appealing.
John Cusack is the star, and one of the screenwriters and co-producers, of this likeable adaptation of the Nick Hornby novel. At its core, it capably tells a good romantic story, and does a very amusing job at poking fun at people who lord their supposedly superior musical knowledge (and tastes) over others. It's got an attractive and endearing cast, and it naturally also has a non-stop, eclectic soundtrack.
Cusack plays Rob, the neurotic owner of a record store that is far from prosperous. His employees are the timid Dick (Todd Louiso) and the far more brash Barry (Jack Black, who walks away with the film). After his longtime girlfriend Laura (charming Danish actress Iben Hjejle) dumps him for another man, it forces him to take stock and reflect on the major relationships - and break-ups - of his life.
Cusack is typically engaging, although this viewer could have done without that over-used device of having the main character directly address the camera. The film itself, despite being a little overlong, has some good laughs. I cracked up when Rob fantasized possible reactions to the annoying Ian (an amusing Tim Robbins), including a scenario of him, Barry, and Dick beating the almighty hell out of him.
Some intelligent and pointed dialogue is brought to life by this talented cast, with a steady parade of lovely ladies (Lisa Bonet, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lili Taylor, Joelle Carter) as the women who have caught Robs' eyes over the years. Rob himself is not too sympathetic for much of the running time, but then, that is the whole point as it takes a while to pinpoint himself as a common denominator, and have his eventual epiphany.
Nice cameo by rock star Bruce Springsteen, too.
Seven out of 10.
Cusack plays Rob, the neurotic owner of a record store that is far from prosperous. His employees are the timid Dick (Todd Louiso) and the far more brash Barry (Jack Black, who walks away with the film). After his longtime girlfriend Laura (charming Danish actress Iben Hjejle) dumps him for another man, it forces him to take stock and reflect on the major relationships - and break-ups - of his life.
Cusack is typically engaging, although this viewer could have done without that over-used device of having the main character directly address the camera. The film itself, despite being a little overlong, has some good laughs. I cracked up when Rob fantasized possible reactions to the annoying Ian (an amusing Tim Robbins), including a scenario of him, Barry, and Dick beating the almighty hell out of him.
Some intelligent and pointed dialogue is brought to life by this talented cast, with a steady parade of lovely ladies (Lisa Bonet, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lili Taylor, Joelle Carter) as the women who have caught Robs' eyes over the years. Rob himself is not too sympathetic for much of the running time, but then, that is the whole point as it takes a while to pinpoint himself as a common denominator, and have his eventual epiphany.
Nice cameo by rock star Bruce Springsteen, too.
Seven out of 10.
helpful•60
- Hey_Sweden
- Nov 26, 2019
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