Despite it being one of my favorite movies of recent years, and despite having enjoyed the other books I’ve read by Nick Hornby, for some reason I never got around to reading High Fidelity until this past week. You know, the original where Rob Gordon is the same devestated mid-30s guy not sure if he’s coming or going with a strange collector’s record store but set in London rather than the Americanized movie.
I watched the movie again last night to see how it compares directly with this novel and I have to tell you, most of the great lines come straight from the pages into John Cusack’s mouth. Jack Black’s Barry is much more entertaining than his print counterpart though, probably because his body language and tone of voice add so much to the sarcasm.
Hornby, who wasn’t involved with the screenplay even though he wrote the Fever Pitch adaption before (the Colin Firth original was not the Jimmy Fallon crap released in 2004, okay?) and the About a Boy adapation after, gives much more depth to Rob’s soulsearching than can really be shown in 100 minutes on screen. And more detail on the five former girlfriends as well. Fortunately, the movie doesn’t go too far off except in the skater punk record subplot though that’s understandable because a movie needs visuals and action in a way that novels don’t.
Probably the biggest reason I enjoyed both versions so well is that I identify so well with the story and see Rob as a somewhat idealized version of myself. Except for the flunking out of college because, after two years of dating and living together, Catherine Zeta-Jones dumped me for someone in her art class. That would be the idealized part, along with Cusack being tall and actually funny. Sigh…
Anyway, there is no bad Nick Hornby book. You might think of High Fidelity as a male chick flick in that it’s all about how a guy deals with his feelings about love and relationships. That would be accurate but missing the good bits about records and, well, living with Catherine Zeta-Jones.
recommended
BillSaysThis 