High Fidelity is about a record store owner, Rob Gordon, and his past and most significant break-ups. The movie begins with Rob’s current girlfriend leaving him behind.Because of this incident, Rob recalls his 5 Top Break-ups and reminisce about his relationship with these 5 women and tries to analyze what went wrong in the hopes of discovering what went wrong with his relationship with his most recent ex-girlfriend Laura.Eventually, he finds closure from his past girlfriends by meeting up with them one by one and discussing what transpired. Eventually, Laura and Rob get back together and live happily, yet still rob is constantly tempted to be unfaithful. Finally, Rob proposes marriage to Laura which she accepts and the film ends with Rob “launching” the careers of his friend Barry and the band of young skaters named “Kinky Wizards” with the urging and the help of his girlfriend Laura.
I do not believe that the way the movie ended is congruous at all with the whole point of the movie. As I mentioned earlier, the movie starts with the break up of Laura motivating Rob to go through a self-discovery mission as to why his relationships end up bad. So as the movie goes one we, as the audience, make the journey with him especially since the movie is made to seem as if Rob is speaking directly to the audience.Rob’s initial statement was that all his relationships ended similar to the end of his first girlfriend Alison Ashmore – he was replaced with another guy. True enough all his girlfriends broke up with him because of another man except for one.
Rob calls Alison Ashmore and finds out that she ended up marrying the guy he was replaced with, Kevin Baxter, and so he justifies this break up as an act of destiny and fate.He meets up with his second girlfriend, Penny Hardwick, and realizes that he was the one who rejected Penny for not wanting to have sex with him.He skips, Charlie Nicholson, and meets up with Sarah Kendrew, just to find out that she is more screwed up than he was.Finally, he meets Charlie and she, finally, explained what was wrong with Rob – he didn’t have as much confidence with himself. He was unsure of himself and lacked direction.
This explanation of Charlie was supported by Laura in numerous occasions when talking to Rob such as in the scene where she was getting her things and she says, “You’re the same person as you used to be…at least you used to talk about the future. Now you don’t even do that. See you haven’t got a clue.” (26:28-26:43)It is possible that the reason this is so is because not even Rob’s mother has enough faith in Rob to put his act together. So his lack of direction and lack of self-esteem can be rooted not only from his past relationships but with his parents as well.Although Rob’s lack of direction and esteem, the reason for his unwillingness to commit, were properly established, the resolution was not presented in the end of the movie.
The only hint that somehow Rob was getting back in form was when he created his top 5 goals and when this was reified upon agreeing to produce the album of the Kinky Wizards. After which, Laura got back with Rob with no explanation whatsoever. So it is not clear if Rob has changed as per Laura’s initial complaint. Moreover, out of the blue Rob decides to ask Laura for her hand in marriage which essentially does not prove that he has gotten his act together.Finally, the concert that happened at the end of the movie was orchestrated by Laura, with the hesitancy and doubt of Rob.
So the only thing that can be concluded with these is that Rob needs Laura to give him direction, which I believe should not be the case because he will be nothing more that a dependent on Laura without truly resolving his lack of direction and esteem. It made the character of Bob look like a loser in the end since he couldn’t stand alone.It would have been better if after talking to Charlie and realizing what was wrong with him, he continued on to building himself. The change of scene could have started from the moment he agreed to produce the album of the Kinky Wizard.After this, the movie should have shown Rob preparing and planning for the concert himself which would show his new found confidence and prowess. It should also have shown the scene where there were numerous people in his store indicating that his business was thriving better due to his efforts and new self.
Finally, when it has been established that he is a much stronger man, then the funeral of Laura’s dad could have occurred.From which Laura would have seen the new Rob and would have fallen in love with him again. After getting back together, the cause of other women getting attracted to Rob is because of his new found confidence. After which he realizes that he only likes Laura and asks her to merry him. Then finally the movie ends with the concert he alone planned.The effect of the movie could have been drastically changed if these scenes were interchanged as I suggested because there would have been a better flow of events, a clearer resolution of Rob’s problem and a more understandable ending.
As it is, the ending would seem as if it has no connection to the very problem that Rob stated at the beginning of the movie. The beginning of the movie was enticing so much that the audience will go through the journey of rediscovery with Rob but Rob will definitely lose his audience by the time he got back with Laura for the events that followed just doesn’t make enough sense.Reference:High Fidelity. Dir. Stephen Frears. With John Cusack, Joan Cusack, and Jack Black.
Dogstar Films, 2000.
