It's hard to watch a movie when the main character is a self-centred, morally wrong, and overall, a bit of an a*hole in the grand scheme of things. So, what makes high fidelity different? John Cusack's character, Rob, is an empty shell of a person blaming others for the way in which his life has turned out, he's bitter, controversial and yearns for what he idealises as the 'perfect woman' to satisfy his need for validation, but that’s what makes this movie so raw and intriguing. Rob speaks directly to the audience breaking the fourth wall and creating a personal relationship with the viewers, almost as if you were reading through his own narrated journal.
He's a self-obsessed, gatekeeping musical elitist who doesn't care about anyone other than himself and frequently throws temper tantrums when he experiences consequences for his own bad behaviour, which he typically contorts to be the fault of anyone other than himself. You really don’t know whether to root for him to get better, or hope he gets what he deserves. It’s oddly comforting to see someone screw up so badly even though it's so obviously avoidable.
The movie is formatted in segments of him breaking up his top ten 5 break ups of all time. And as he explores these break ups and re visits the old memories and old girlfriends, he realises whilst the ending of a lot of the relationships wasn’t entirely because of him, but his unhappiness with women overall is due to his unrealistic expectations of a perfect woman, insecurities and self-absorbed actions. The movie is generally rather interesting when it gets going. The hero's hypocritical and otherwise unhealthy behaviour is oddly compelling to see, his descent into self-destruction providing something not often seen in a film's leading man. His actions are an example of what not to do in his situation. Overall, the film stood out to me due to its quirky film style, narration and compelling characters along with an incredible track of classic songs, so if you’re a music lover your bound to at least get a kick out of the 5-star music.