High Fidelity

A novel written by Nick Hornby in 1995, “High Fidelity” follows 35 year old Rob, as he reflects on his failed relationships. Rob owns Championship Vinyl, a record store in London which employs Dick and Barry. Rob is undergoing a melodramatic crisis after his girlfriend Laura leaves him, and he looks back at his “five most memorable breakups” to try to uncover the mysterious cause of all his romantic failures.

Directed by Stephen Frears in 2000, the film by the same name stars John Cusack and follows the basis of the plot almost exactly. The characters have the same names, there is the same dilemma, the same conclusion, yet the film is set in Chicago. The idiosyncrasies of dialogue mostly just change the consumption of the work, and not the actual digested meaning. The main failure for the film is in translating that Rob is not really the hero of the story. Not that he isn’t the protagonist, but the novel does a better job portraying the misogyny and underlying fear of commitment and death. The film does more of a genuine celebration for Rob discovering that he is the problem in all his relationships, while the novel has more of a introspective approach on the features of insecure masculinity.

Music as a strength

One of the strengths of the port to film is that music, which plays a major role in the quirkiness of Nick Hornby’s writing, is actually playing while being referenced. Despite the accurate depictions of the records that are spun in the novel, it is just simply better to actually hear the songs when creating atmosphere.

Something interesting is the “Beta Band Scene” which appears in the film. Rob says to his co-worker Dick, “I will now sell five copies of ‘The Three E.P.’s’ by The Beta Band”, and as he drops the needle on the record it begins playing over the store speakers. A man nods his head to the beat and turns towards Rob,

“Who is that?”

“The Beta Band”, he replies

“It’s good”

“I know”

“The album’s sales have quadrupled since the film’s release last month, according to the Beta Band’s U.S. label, Astralwerks.” (https://www.mtv.com/news/nef0sp/high-fidelity-boosts-beta-band-sales)

It’s pretty unique to film to be able to have a reactionary promotional side to everything that appears on screen. For me at least, I know that I pulled up this album when it played in the film. It’s something that is in the subconscious of many pieces of visual media: How can we promote something to the viewers?

Male Perception of Characters

Going back to male perception of male characters in media, a parallel I have noticed in many film adaptations is that the message is often misconstrued towards impressionable male audiences. “American Psycho” and “Fight Club” are both pretty topical examples of this.

“American Psycho” novel and film cover and poster

“Fight Club” novel and film cover and poster

These characters are misogynistic and unstable, yet many see them as the peak of male performance. Although this is a mostly online take, it still reflects on how sometimes you just need to be attractive and look cool for the psychotic behavior to be looked over.

Looking towards “High Fidelity”, John Cusack doesn’t exactly play someone who aligns with all of the insanity of characters like Patrick Bateman or Tyler Durden, but some level of cognitive dissonance is held towards his misogynistic tendencies due to his charisma. The novel does a much better job of getting inside Rob’s head as a willing destroyer of his life.

“It’s brilliant, being depressed; you can behave as badly as you like.”
― Nick Hornby, High Fidelity

“I’ve committed to nothing…and that’s just suicide…by tiny, tiny increments.”
― Nick Hornby, High Fidelity

What attracted me towards the book was its ability to portray depression in terms of being lethargic and indifferent to what goes on around you. I feel that the film more portrayed a hero’s journey of Rob learning that he is the problem in his relationships, but not actually atoning for anything that he did.

Why Does it Matter?

Well I enjoyed both the film and the novel. Sometimes the film is a little difficult to recommend to people because some of the early 2000’s writing just hits a weird place, but overall I think that they are both good works of art.

Does it really matter if a film is loyal to a novel? Put simply, no. It just isn’t fair to hand something to a different person and expect them to create a one to one translation of the work of art. But what is important is that it doesn’t misconstrue the actual meaning of the original work to be something that it is not.