"High Fidelity"- Questions to Ponder

1. What is the movie about?

“High Fidelity” revolved around the story of its leading man, Rob Gordon (John Cusack) who faced miserable love relationships in his life and was ready to face the facts that lead to all the breakups he suffered. Rob had never thought of reinvestigating his love life until he broke up with Laura (Iben Hjejle). The movie started with a scene of arguments between Rob and Laura, which then ended with Laura leaving Rob and ends their relationship. Suffering from another breakup, Rob decided to include Laura in his top five memorable breakups, and is ready to recall all the five stories again in order to know what has happened to his former girlfriends, and also to know the real reason on why they have left him.
In order to re-examine his failed relationship, Rob finally comes to the decision of seeking all the girls back to know how they are doing. In order to really get over his past, Rob decides to revisit the places where he had gone with his past girlfriends. By being in touch with them again, Rob sees them differently. In other words, maturity has hit them. In one part of the story, Rob could not believe that he had fall in love for all of them back then. This was obviously evident when Rob, in present accepted Charlie’s (Catherine Zeta Jones) invitation for dinner party at her house. Charlie was his college girlfriend who had left him for another man. Seeing Charlie again after many years, Rob admitted that he had great admiration for Charlie in the past, and can now see her as how she really is. Rob had certainly matured through the years and realized many things that he had not discovered before that.
Besides the struggle of overcoming his past failed relationships, Rob suffers deeply due to his breakup with Laura. In contrast to his other ex-girlfriends, Rob felt that his love towards Laura was pure, and he needs Laura in his life. The fact that Laura is now with another man (Rob’s former neighbor) adds to his restlessness. Rob realizes the impact of Laura leaving him, and it makes him heartbroken. Thus, Rob decided not to recall his love story with Laura as she leaves the greatest impact in his life.
The climax of the story comes when Laura’s father died. Rob was invited to the funeral ceremony since Laura’s mother liked him a lot. With the grief surrounding Laura, she badly needs Rob for a fling and after that realized that she needed Rob in her life to help her continue living and to cope with the fact of losing her father. Rob finally saw that his relationship with Laura was impartial, and proposed her in marriage. That was the greatest fulfillment and happiness in his life that had helped him get through his miserable past.
Besides focusing on the life story of Rob, “High Fidelity” also includes the story of Rob’s two workers, Barry and Dick. Both of them have different personalities, and their discussion revolves around their interests in music.


2. How is the story different from other common fiction?

This movie is different from other common fiction as it breaks the stereotype of love stories we often see or experience. By watching the movie, it reflects to us that not all love stories, or human’s love relationship can end happily. Besides that, “High Fidelity” also makes the audience understand that not every individual has the lucky opportunity to meet their soul mate early in life. A very evident example is the protagonist himself. He had to go through so many breakups before finally settling down with Laura. The movie also showed us that even when we have someone special that we love, people tend to take things for granted. A saying said that relationships can be compared to growing up. We learn many things, many things needs sacrifices and change, in order to be able to understand and appreciate our partner more. Good and long lasting love relationships are built, and everyday it grows. Being able to really appreciate our partner and the ability to change in order to improve our life is the recipe of happiness in a relationship. One example that can be taken from the movie was when Laura decided to leave Rob. She had been in a relationship with Rob for several years, but she saw nothing changing in him. She does not feel so attached to Rob, thus contribute to her decision of leaving him. Eventually, with Laura breaking up with Rob, she managed to open Rob’s eyes on the need to change and become a better and successful person in life.

3. Who is your favourite character? Why?

My favourite character in the movie would be Liz (Joan Cusack). She is Rob’s best friend. I think that her character plays an important part in the maturity of the leading man, Rob Gordon. We can see how important her character was in helping Rob discovers his flaws and change. As a friend, Liz was always there for Rob, consoling him after his breakups and always tried to make things better for him. She is very understanding, and a supportive figure in Rob’s life. Rob turns to her with his problems, with the intention of asking for opinions and help. For example, a scene where Laura and Liz was sitting together having tea at a restaurant. Liz met Laura in order to know the real factor on why Laura left Rob. Even though she is a friend of Rob’s she admitted that even Rob made a mistake that led to the breakup. She realized that she has the responsibility to help Rob solve his love problems. In a way, by having Liz as his friend, Rob has a way of understanding women better. Liz provided Rob with opinions regarding the opposite gender, and it can be seen as a possible turning point in Rob’s life in realizing his flaws. Although her appearances were as a minor character in the movie, I obviously believe that she played an important part to the evolvement or continuation of the plot to the story.

4. Provide an alternate ending.

In my opinion, as the scriptwriter and producer of this movie aimed at providing audience a story that breaks the stereotype and common features of a love story, they might as well make it more uncommon of a love fiction by having a tragic ending for instance. We know that many love stories would have a “happily ever ending” note at the end of it. The same goes with “High Fidelity’ where Laura and Rob, the leading characters of the story in the end managed to confront their problems and lead a blissful life together. An alternate ending that I suggest would be whereby Rob, who has had so many failures in love, would have given up hope and loses his interest in women as he feels that they are just making his life miserable and complication. After Laura had left him and his successful attempt to know the causes of his failed relationships, Rob could be someone who learnt his lessons well, and would stay out of the love business. What will happen to Laura? I think that although Laura knows her needs for Rob, she can only be friends with him. Rob is not a romantic type of person. The way he proposed Laura, as seen in the movie was not like any typical leading actor in a love fiction. So when Rob proposed, Laura realized that she can only accept him as her close friend, but not as a lover due to the various conflicts that she faced while still with him. When this movie has a tragic ending, it proves to the audience that not all love can last together until the end.