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.

Meet Bill

How many movies can you name that have been single handedly taken to a whole new level thanks to the performance of just one person – typically the lead role. Take for e.g. 300 – thanks to Gerard Butler – no one else worth speaking about right? Erin Brockovich a.k.a. The Julia Roberts show Part 1. Gladiator – Totally Russel Crowe. Raging Bull – Robert De Niro all the way to the end. Get the drift right? If it weren’t for these performances, the movie in itself would not be anywhere close to what it landed up being. Also, these are the kind of actors who can hold a movie together no matter how weak the subject matter is. One such actor who is amongst my all time favourites and unfortunately one who I have been introduced to only in the past couple of years is Aaron Eckhart. When I think of Aaron Eckhart I can think of 2 words – Simply Superb!!! His performances in super satirical movies like “Thank You for Smoking” or as Harvey Dent in the Dark Knight or as Nick in No Reservations – S-I-M-P-L-Y S-U-P-E-R-B!!!! And Meet Bill is no different from the rest.


Bill (Eckhart) is the executive vice president @ Freedom First Bank which is primarily owned by Mr. Jacoby (Holmes Osborne) and is Bill’s father in law. Completing the troika is John Jr. (Todd Louiso) – Bill’s Brother in Law – an irritable guy to the core, whose only thrill in life is to make Bill feel like the scum of the earth. Bill pretty much believes that he has a position simply because he is married to Jessie (Elizabeth Banks) and is desperate to make something out of his life on his own terms. But all is not well @ home as Bill discovers accidentally about Jessica having an affair with the local micro celebrity, Chip Johnson (Timothy Olyphant). When the men go out on a hunting trip (which is not something Bill is very excited about), he sets up a handycam in their bedroom and finds out that his fears are indeed a reality. An obviously upset Bill beats up Chip and gets himself infamous across the town thanks to being on live TV for the wrong reasons. Worse still, the video finds its way to the Internet.

Now Bill is an Alumnus of Tate High which is the most prestigious institute in the area and also part of a mentorship programme which involves him spending 5 hours a week with a student. In the bargain he gets assigned to him a character who through the movie is referred to only as The Kid (Logan Lerman). The Kid is probably the most promiscuous and wild character you can ever meet. Barely 16, he is always smoking up or flirting with as many women as he can and he is quite good at it as well. Now the kid likes Bill a lot but one cant say the feeling is mutual. So in an effort to build confidence with Bill, The Kid decides to help him get his wife back. He takes the help of Lucy (Jessica Alba) a lingerie store assistant to pretend to be having an affair with Bill and use the jealousy card with Jessica (the wife not the actress). What follows is a serious attempt from Bill to win back the love of his life through various ways from putting in several laps in the pool to even shaving off his chest hair (Ouch!!!!).

Meet Bill is a fabulous way to spend 2 hours if you have that available in your itinerary. Bernie Goldman is primarily a producer but does a reasonable job in his only directorial venture to date. Assisted by another debutante Melissa Wallack, also the writer, and add the solid performances of the rest of the cast and you have a very entertaining comedy to say the least. Wonder why it never made the big screen in India. There seem to be so many of these movies that don’t seem to see the light of the day. Definitely a 7 on 10. Playing these days on Zee Studio. Watch it.