High Fidelity

High Fidelity On the surface, High Fidelity is a story about breaking up and getting back together again. Only, thanks to director Stephen Frears’ narrative technique, we don’t realize this until the credits start to roll. He plunges into the life of Rob Gordon, played by John Cusack, on the night his girlfriend, Laura, leaves him. Rob’s subsequent depression and self-analysis is the focus of the film; getting the girl back becomes secondary. …

…like. High Fidelity is an entertaining, but poignant look at breaking up. So many stories trivialize it or play it for cheap comedy. This one is more interested in exploring what a breakup does to the psyche. Through the creative narrative techniques of flashbacks and candid monologues, the audience becomes fully engaged in Rob’s struggle. Cusack is able to represent the despair of a broken heart and to pull it off with real humanity.