Rob, a record store owner and compulsive list maker, recounts his top five breakups, including the one in progress.
Thirty-something Rob Gordon, a former club DJ, owns a not-so-lucrative used record store in Chicago. He not so much employs Barry and Dick, but rather keeps them around as they showed up at the store one day and never left. All three are vinyl and music snobs, but in different ways. Rob has a penchant for compiling top-five lists. The latest of these lists is his top-five break-ups, it spurred by the fact that his latest girlfriend, Laura, a lawyer, has just broken up with him. He believed that Laura would be the one who would last, partly as an expectation of where he would be at this stage in his life. Rob admits that there have been a few incidents in their relationship which in and of themselves could be grounds for her to want to break up. To his satisfaction, Laura is not on this top-five list. Rob feels a need not only to review the five relationships, which go back as far as middle school when he was 12, and try to come to terms with why the woman, or girl as the case may be, left him, but also, in the words of Charlie Nicholson, number four on the list, "what it all means" for why he has ended up where he is, which is nowhere, personally or professionally, close to what he envisioned. He also has to come to terms with what it means that Laura has moved on to Ian Raymond, a man for whom neither had any respect when they were together.
High Fidelity follows the 'mid-life' crisis of Rob, a thirty-something record-store owner who must face the undeniable facts - he's growing up. In a hilarious homage to the music scene, Rob and the wacky, offbeat clerks that inhabit his store expound on the intricacies of life and song all the while trying to succeed in their adult relationships. Are they listening to pop music because they are miserable? Or are they miserable because they listen to pop music? This romantic comedy provides a whimsical glimpse into the male view of the affairs of the heart.—<[email protected]>
Arrested development confronts 30-something Rob Gordon when Laura, his smart and successful lover, leaves him because he hasn't changed since they met. He reviews his top five worst breakups (he constantly makes top-five lists, though usually about music). He recalls each breakup, reconnects with these former loves to find out why they dumped him, and wallows in misery from losing Laura. Much of it plays out at his vinyl record store where he and two clerks, socially-inept savants, live and breathe obscure contemporary music. Rob makes fruitless attempts to win Laura back, indulges in new relationships laced with fantasy, and tries introspection. What will Laura do?—<[email protected]>
Rob Gordon (John Cusack) is a self-confessed music geek with a poor understanding of women. After getting dumped by his current girlfriend, Laura (Iben Hjejle), he decides to look up some of his old partners in an attempt to figure out where he keeps going wrong in his relationships.
Rob recounts his top 5 breakups,Allison Ashmore. When Rob was 14 years old, she invited him for 2 hours kissing sessions each day for 3 days straight and on the 4th day was kissing someone else.
Penny Hardwick (Joelle Carter). They dated when Rob was in college and shared each other's taste in music. Penny was so nice that she wouldn't let Rob touch her breasts or between her legs, so Rob dumped her. Penny then dated a different guy and slept with him after 3 dates.
Charlie Nicholson (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Again, in college, sexy as hell & gave Rob all kinds of pleasure, but Rob always felt that she would dump her for one of her music partners & she did. Rob took to alcohol & when he sobered up a few months later, he had flunked out of college & took a job at a record store,
Sarah (Lili Taylor). Sarah was rebounding from a breakup with her, boyfriend & Rob was rebounding from Charlie, they met & turned their collective loathing for the opposite sex into a relationship. Then Sarah met someone else
& finally, Laura. Whom Rob cheated on; he cheated on Laura while she was pregnant. His cheating let to her abortion; Rob borrowed money from Laura & never paid her back. Finally, when Laura asked if things were not OK between them 2, Rob said that he always thought about meeting other females.
Rob wonders about the impact of pop music in shaping the beliefs of the current generation as nobody objects to young people listening to thousands of hours of music on their portable device, although almost everything else from TV to social media, to print media is heavily censored.
He spends his days at his record store, Championship Vinyl, where he holds court over the customers that drift through. Helping Rob in his task of musical elitism are Dick (Todd Louiso) and Barry (Jack Black), the "musical moron twins," as he refers to them. Rob hired them for 3 days a week and they just started showing up every day, and that was 4 years ago.Armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of all things musical, they compile "top five" lists for every conceivable occasion (top 5 music crimes perpetrated by Stevie Wonder in the 80s and 90s), openly mock the ignorance of their customers, and every so often, sell a few records.
Rob decides to call his top 5 break ups to figure out what is wrong with his relationships. Allison's mother picks up the phone & tells Rob that Allison married the next guy she met after breaking up with Rob. Rob then meets Penny who tells her that she did want to have sex with Rob, but not when she was 16 & when Rob broke up with her, another guy in the college hounded her & practically sexually assaulted her but called it consensual sex as she had said "yes". Sarah actually was still single & admitted that breaking up with Rob was a mistake.
Rob and the staff have a strong dislike for two shoplifting skateboarder teenagers, Vince (Chris Rehmann) and Justin (Ben Carr) until Rob discovers their music project, The Kinky Wizards. One day, he listens to a recording that they did (actually "The Inside Game" by Royal Trux). Impressed by their recording, Rob offers them a record deal under his newly founded label, Top 5 Records.
During his off hours, he pines for Laura and does his best to win her back. Ron finds that Laura is going out with a guy named Ian (who lives in his building) a man Rob initially doesn't recognize. However, after finding a letter addressed to "I. Raymond," Rob realizes that Ian is Ray, their former upstairs neighbor.
Laura & Rob used to listen to Ian having sex, & Ian had the capacity to go on for hours, which made Laura jealous. Laura meets Rob & explains that she is just staying with Ian till she figures out what she wants to do next. Rob infers that to mean that he still has a chance with her. But then, a few days later Laura admits that she has slept with Ian. These shatters Rob.
Rob is obsessed with Laura & keeps calling Ian's landline from a payphone to interrupt their dinner. Ian comes over to Rob's music store to have a chat with Rob, but Rob ignores him.Rob soon hears that Laura's father, who liked Rob, has died, and attends his funeral with Laura.
Shortly after the reception, Rob realizes he never committed to Laura and always had one foot out the door. This made him realize he neglected his own future in the process. Afterwards, he and Laura move back in together again, and she organizes an evening where he has the opportunity to revisit a love of his youth. It is also a celebration of the recently released single by the two delinquents, where Barry's band plays "Let's Get It On".
Rob then meets a music columnist and develops a crush on her. While making a mix-tape for her, he wonders whether he is simply jumping from one attraction to another. In a heartfelt conversation with Laura, Rob acknowledges that other women are mere fantasies, while Laura is his reality, someone he never tires of. He proposes to her, and although she thanks him for asking, she encourages him to revisit his passion for DJing.
At a celebration for the release of Vince and Justin's single, organized by Laura, Rob is pleasantly surprised by the performance of Barry's band. He also breathes a sigh of relief when Barry opts against naming the band "Sonic Death Monkey" or "Kathleen Turner Overdrive," choosing instead "Barry Jive and the Uptown Five." Finally, Rob creates a mix-tape for Laura, confident that he has finally learned how to make her happy.
