I rented "High Fidelity" the other night and I sort of liked it, even though it seemed to be like a mish mash of ten other movies, "Singles," and "Say Anything" are just two that come quickly to mind.
What saved the movie from being a Cusack clone, was that the moments that seemed irritatingly repetitive of other moments from other aforesaid movies, was the surprising way they veered off into another emotional direction, changing my expectations entirely. I guess the Lisa Bonet scene typified that. Still, there were a sense of Cusack déja vu through-out the film. Will Sarah, Minnie, Ione come back to him? After awhile I thought, why should I care? Even if supporting actors' performances added clever, divertive moments (like Tim Robbins's hilarious role as love guru Ian Raymond), it still felt like watching the same relationship get played out in different yet similar contexts with Cusack as the passionate rebel and Sarah as the vehicle for his idealism. And, the funeral ploy of Sarah's father dying worked to the same effect as when Ione Skye's character from 'Say Anything' discovers her dad is an embezzler and she, too, runs back to Cusack. Brilliant, big-hearted pretty girl falls in love with asocial semi-loser only now they are older and things are more complicated because they're not in high school and she is blonde.
Also, I absolutely hated the Ally McBealesque let's-all-feel-good and dance ending. It could just be that I've outgrown this kind of film and the kind of late eighties early nineties consciousness that it sprouted from. Growing up with these kinds of films, there are really no surprises left.
