After watching High Fidelity, I'm guessing that this is one of those movies where reading the book it's based on is more rewarding. I haven't read the book, but from Fever Pitch, About a Boy, and How to Be Good, I can tell that Nick Hornby really has a way with words. Some works just don't translate well to the big screen.
John Cusack plays Rob Gordon, owner of a backstreet record store called Championship Vinyl, who is confused and angst-ridden even though he's not a teenager anymore. Basically, he runs his shop the same way Bernard Black runs Black Books - by ignoring his customers. Having been recently dumped by long-time lawyer-girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle), he spends most of his time re-examining his past relationships and constructing top-five song lists with assistants Barry (Jack Black) and Dick (Todd Louiso).Ok, here's my Top 5 Super Mushy Love Songs Best Played in the Middle of the Night when It's So Quiet You Can Hear a Pin Drop:
- If I Go Away - Paul Jackson Jr. (Barbara Weathers - vocals)
- All in How Much We Give - Stephanie Mills
- If I'm Not in Love - Kathy Troccoli
- Land of the Loving - David Benoit
- If There is You - Kilauea (Heather Mullen - vocals)
I think you should read the book before you denounce its screen adaptation merits/limitations. More scenes than not are scripted nearly word for word from the book.
ReplyDeleteOn BBC Radio 2, when asked about the film by Steve Wright and Tim Smith, Hornby said that he quite liked it. While this doesn't necessarily mean that it is a good film, I think it says a lot about the quality of the adaptation when the source creator highly approves.
Here is a transcript from an interview where he has some interesting things to say about the film and the book.
Nice Top Five list btw.
Thanks for the link. Still haven't read the book, but I'm 90% sure I'll like it more than the movie. :-)
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