Friday Film: High Fidelity
Earlier today, I mentioned that Hollywood has come to Chicago to film a new movie near the Biograph. This historic theatre, along with several other Chicago landmarks, also appears in the 2000 film High Fidelity.
| High Fidelity (2000) | |
| Directed by: | Stephen Frears |
| Produced by: | Tim Bevan Rudd Simmons |
| Starring: | John Cusack Iben Hjejle Todd Louiso Jack Black Lisa Bonet Catherine Zeta-Jones Joan Cusack Tim Robbins |
| Distributed by: | Touchstone Pictures |
| All Movie Guide IMDb Amazon.com  |
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The movie, based on a novel by the same name, is about Rob Gordon (John Cusack), a man in his 30s who owns a record store at the corner of Milwaukee Avenue and Honore Street (in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood). Rob's girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle) has just broken up with him, leading him to remember his five worst relationship break-ups. He speculates on whatever happened to those girls and why he is 'doomed to rejection.'
Looking for answers, Rob seeks out all these women, coming to educational epiphanies about himself as he meets them. Throughout this process, he tries to cope with the loss of Laura and the fact that she is dating his former neighbor, Ian a.k.a. Ray (Tim Robbins). Rob is desperate to get Laura back' but does he truly want her' or does he just want her away from Ian?
While Rob is busy examining the most memorable moments of his life, his employees Dick (Todd Louiso) and Barry (Jack Black) argue constantly about the most memorable music in any given genre. It is difficult to call any of these people 'characters,' because they are so true to real life. I have gone to college with these types of people. I'm sure you know them too. They think that films with no plot are brilliant, that the only good beers are from microbreweries, and that musicians are only cool as long as no one else has ever heard of them.
Perhaps that's why this film unfolds so effortlessly. It doesn't attempt an intricate plot or complicated characters. It's just there. It is what it is. The film doesn't make me think, it doesn't make me cringe away, it doesn't make me' anything. Regardless, it is two hours of entertainment that any indie-music-loving fan will enjoy, and it provides plenty of scenes of Chicago. The movie features the aforementioned Biograph, the Music Box Theatre, a residential building at 2250 W Ohio St, and several eL stations and tracks.
