High Fidelity

Aah the pleasures of inflight entertainment on an international flight!!! There are so many movies that don’t see the light of day back home.  And I wonder why?  During the flight to down under, I happened to see 2 such movies.  High Fidelity is a funny RomCom with some serious acting talent on display.

Rob Gordon (John Cusack) is a loser of sorts.  He has the opportunity to make it big but is too darn lazy to move his ass in a positive direction.  He drops out of college and keeps doing odd jobs till he finally lands up doing something that he really wants to but doesn’t pay him enough to keep up with the rent and expenses.  He owns a music store along with his friends Dick (Todd Louiso) and Barry (Jack Black).  Dick is a diminutive, reserved kind of a person who barely speaks but has a supreme command over music.  Barry on the other hand is a riot.  He is reckless and has a huge liking for rock / cult music which is different and not run of the mill.  So much so that he would refuse to sell stuff to people who he believes don’t have the right taste in music.  The trio struggles through life but have that one thing that binds them together – music.

However, Rob’s life is turned a bit topsy turvy when his girlfriend of two years, Laura (Iben Hjejle) decides to dump him.  A distraught Rob tries his best to stop her but she is not willing to go through this anymore.  Rob is even more crushed when he realizes that she has temporarily moved in with the guy next door, Ian ‘Ray’ Raymond (Tim Robbins), a karate expert and a weirdo.  Unable to figure out the reason for this sudden turn of events, he tries to wind the clock on all his previous relationships which have failed and boils down to his top 5 break ups starting from a passing high school romance that lasted for a few hours but left him completely shattered.

High Fidelity is a dark RomCom – if there is room for any such classification.  Director Stephen Frears has been around for over 40 years now (30 at the time of making HF).  He spent a better part of the first half of his career on Television – primarily with short films and TV movies.  But he kind of burst into the silver screen with the 1988 block buster – Dangerous Liaisons. His last known work was the Oscar nominated “The Queen”.  One cannot help but notice that his movies are studded with supremely strong actors.  A trait that he uses in HF as well – very successfully.  John Cusack’s portrayal of the loser character of Rob Gordon is simply superb.  He is not just ably but wonderfully supported by one of the best comic actors of our time – Jack Black.  Together they completely light up the screen on what could be otherwise considered as a not so strong script or story line.  The supporting cast is also superb – so is it kudos to direction or just that Mr. Frears picks his actors very carefully? Doesn’t really matter I say.  The output is a very strong movie which could probably have been pushed to the next level with a stronger script.  7 on 10 from my side for HF.  Watch it if you are a lover of Dark Comedy.

Runaway Bride

Garry Marshall is an expert at RomComs. And Runaway Bride would rate as one of the better movies that he has made. I guess Mr. Marshall, very early in his career i.e. way back in 1990 realised that he hit pay dirt with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere when he made Pretty Woman. We all know that Pretty Woman went on to break almost every Box Office record set previously. I mean which movie can you remember that lasted for nearly 50 weeks in India????? Mind you this was the era before the VCD and piracy. But lets not take the credit away from Garry for having given us some really great moments in an evergreen genre @ the movies – The Romantic Comedy.

In the Runaway Bride, Richard Gere plays the role of Ike Graham, a successful columnist who is hated to the core by most women thanks to his blunt and satirical comments directed towards them. He is however, in for a lot more trouble this time. Unable to hit upon an idea, that last minute man that he always is, he commits the cardinal error of journalism. Doesn’t verify his source. A half drunk man, apparently broken hearted, introduces him to the concept of the man eating woman who, it would seem, gets her kicks out leaving her “husbands-to-be” stranded @ the altar waiting to say “I do”. Please welcome Ms. Maggie Carpenter (Julia Roberts)!!!!

Now Ms. Carpenter is obviously displeased at this public display of her inability to cross the bridge 3 times in a row and quickly fires a note to Ellie (Rita Wilson) - Mr. Graham’s editor who also happens to be his ex-wife - threatening a law suit. Ellie is unfortunately left with no choice but to fire Ike since nearly 15 points in the article are incorrect – whatever happened to the gospel truth of a drunk man never lying. Poor Ike is now jobless but does have a guardian angel in Fisher (Hector Elizondo) who is Ellie’s current husband. Fisher comes up with a plan to vindicate Ike – by going after the true story – get it straight from the horse’s mouth.

So our hero makes his way to the sleepy li’l town where our heroine is seemingly creating havoc. Obviously he was mentally prepared to not receive a hero’s welcome. But definitely didn’t expect to get his hair coloured like a rainbow. That’s just the beginning. What Maggie isn’t prepared for is that Ike, the journalist that he is, has his smooth way with words and quickly manages to strike a chord with almost everyone in the town including Maggie’s 4th bride to be – Bob Kelly (Christopher Meloni). This time around, he wants to ensure that he gets all the facts right – what do they say about learning things the hard way? He uses his gift of the gab to the best and squirms his way into learning as many gory details as possible from people around the town, almost ex-husbands etc. Unfortunately, they also get to know a lot about each other and as luck would have it… oops… fall in love … now what????

Julia Roberts & Richard Gere have an on screen chemistry that can be compared by very very few. They actually bring to life, the mushy stuff that dreams are made of. The fact that they are good actors only adds to the entertainment. But the benchmark that they set for themselves with Pretty Woman continues to be the one that they share.

There are some brilliant moments in the movie. Chief among them being the reaction that Maggie has to Ike when he says, “Look, I guarantee there'll be tough times. I guarantee that at some point, one or both of us is gonna want to get out of this thing. But I also guarantee that if I don't ask you to be mine, I'll regret it for the rest of my life, because I know, in my heart, you're the only one for me”. For my money’s worth – one of the best dialogues from a RomCom. Just one of the reasons that Garry Marshall is the best guy to make a RomCom.

Easy watch any given Sunday. Not difficult to go thru. Nothing complicated. Simple straight forward vintage romance. 6 on 10 for this one.