I'm not generally one to be absorbed by those films that seek to find some universal truths about men and relationships. Or women and relationships, although such films are much rarer. I always wonder at the priorities and the automatic skew of the filmmakers that never question the baseline assumptions. Why is it that men are declared "mature" purely by deciding to settle with the woman who happened to be his girlfriend when he got tired of all the uncertainties of dating? Why are women always the ones applying pressure to marry, settle down, siccing their henhouse on some poor guy whose primary sin is...not dumping her up to now, as best I can figure? Eh. Alien concepts.
That said, High Fidelity is a superior entry in the genre, with a cracklingly funny script, great performances, and genuine emotional depth. Cusack is always marvellous as the determinedly unsuccessful record store owner with an entirely sensible girlfriend who moves out because he is giving off anti-commitment vibes, or something (find some chick type to explain it to you, I do not grok). Jack Black and Todd Louisa, as his part-time employees that never go home, are far more interesting characters than any of the women in the film--I found their plot lines and resolution more satisfactory than Cusack's. While most of the women were uninteresting in comparison to these three, I did appreciate the fact that none were degraded, patronized, or insulted beyond my tolerance level. They are all quite intelligent, too, leaving me nothing to complain about save their utter lack of anything approaching a memorable personality. Sara Gilbert does score in her few scenes as a fellow record geek.
But then, you can't really go by me. I can't say I enjoyed it, but so long as I avoided thinking about the purpose, I had a good time. Bring back Jack Black--there's a guy should be working more.
