HIGH FIDELITY RATING: 7 /10 --> Good movie
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I used to be a major comic book geek. I still am a pretty big movie geek. The characters in this movie are music geeks. But unlike myself, they don't have the patience to deal with "the rest of the world" who apparently don't know as much about music as they do. Of course, this type of snobbery isn't very cool, but gosh darnit...it's pretty funny! Tag that onto the fact that this film is essentially about a guy dealing with the breakup of his relationship, and it's sad to say that my life is definitely imitating this art. Bummer.
PLOT: A 30-something year old man unwilling to grow up suddenly has to come to grips with his lifelong inability to maintain any sort of successful relationship. He decides to revisit his previous relations in an attempt to educate and invigorate his present state of life.
CRITIQUE: A funny, original, small tale which kept me entertained me with its laughs and intrigued with its universal relationship dilemmas, despite almost losing me with its never-ending conclusion. If you don't like John Cusack as an actor or a person (is there a difference?), I would suggest you scratch this film off your list because he is everywhere in this movie! He speaks into the camera, plays that same guy he seems to have played in half a dozen other flicks and ultimately takes you through the adventure of his life's most hurtful relationships, so if you don't like him...chances are, you won't dig the film. I did enjoy him and his performance in this movie because of a well-written script which belted out plenty of major laughs, tossed a few decent "dialogue keepers" out there for kicks, and ultimately entertained and secured my interest for most of its run. Granted, I had a major problem with Cusack's girlfriend in the movie, one Iben Hjejle, who seemed totally out of place, radiated very little charisma, and ultimately just jostled my attention with her come-and-go accent and inconsistent delivery. But I digress.
Thankfully for this film and Mr. Frears, the rest of the cast was rock solid with a handful of "name" actors dropping by for small cameos here and there. The great Tim Robbins seemed to be the one who had the most fun with his character, and I certainly shared in that enthusiasm. But in the end, the movie is about relationships, love, commitment and growing up. Do these subjects matter or mean anything to you? Have you had your heart broken, broken a heart, felt like nothing, felt like the king of the world...well, if you have, then chances are that you will definitely share something in common with at least one of the characters from this movie. The story is sincere, Cusack is very good in his role, and more than anything, the film is actually pretty funny, especially the first half. The last 20 minutes or so seemed to drag a little, with certain scenarios slowing the pace down, but all in all, I enjoyed this film.
So if you like relationship comedies with touches of drama sprinkled here and there, this one should definitely make your "to do" list for the weekend. Ironically, for a movie that is set in and around a record store, featuring hundreds of references to music of all eras...the soundtrack was actually pretty inconspicuous. Strange.
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars: According to John Cusack and Entertainment Weekly magazine, "no one liked" the first screenplay draft of this movie as written by Scott Rosenberg. So Cusack himself wrote a new version, with his collaborators from GROSSE POINTE BLANK, D.V. DeVincentis and Steve Pink (Two of his high school buddies, with whom he also runs a production company called New Crime Productions). "Then the Writer's Guild screwed us and gave Scott credit, too", says Cusack. Retorts Rosenberg: "I don't want to get in a pissing contest, but having been burned by the [credit] arbitration, I did some soul searching and decided to work with the system and get makeup credit." The Boss, Bruce Springsteen, has a small cameo in this movie. The film is based on a cult comic novel of the same name written by Nick Hornsby. One major change from the novel has apparently angered a lot of its fans, and it has to do with the film version taking place in Chicago, while the book was set entirely in London, England. John's love interest in this film is played by Iben Hjejle, a Danish actress making her American debut in this film. Lisa Bonet played Denise on TV's "The Cosby Show" and was married to rocker Lenny Kravitz for about six years. They have one daughter together. Director Stephen Frears is probably best known for his 1990 overrated film called THE GRIFTERS, also starring John Cusack, and 1988's DANGEROUS LIAISONS, an adult version of CRUEL INTENTIONS...'tis a joke! :)
Review Date: March 29, 2000 Director: Stephen Frears Writers: John Cusack, D.V. DeVincentis, Steve Pink and Scott Rosenberg Producers: Tim Bevan and Rudd Simmons Actors: John Cusack as Rob Gordon Iben Hjejle as Laura Jack Black as Barry Todd Louiso as Dick Genre: Comedy Year of Release: 2000 ------------------------------------ JoBlo's Movie Emporium http://www.joblo.com/ ------------------------------------ (c) 2000 Berge Garabedian
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