After the success of Grosse Pointe Blank, John Cusack and his writing/production partners Steve Pink and D.V. DeVincentis have turned their attentions to an even riskier project, adapting Nick Hornby's British novel High Fidelity to a Chicago setting. The result is a ruthlessly truthful and wry comedy that is courageous enough to show the hero as a seriously flawed human being. Rob Gordon (Cusack) is the owner of a specialist record store with two dysfunctional employees, the introverted Dick (Louiso) and the loud-mouthed rock purist Barry (Black), who steal a scene or two. They are all obsessive music buffs, constructing and comparing their top-five lists of favourite hits. Rob's girlfriend, Laura (Hjejle from Mifune), is leaving him. In despair he constructs his top-five list of rejections from women in his life and revisits them to find out where he went wrong. In the process he uncovers a number of uncomfortable truths about himself as well as the reassuring power of forgiveness and redemption. The extensive soundtrack features Bruce Springsteen, The Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan and many others. Queue up for this one!

Abbie (Madonna) and her gay best friend Robert (Everett) have a drunken night and end up having sex. Abbie gets pregnant and decides to have the baby, and Robert announces he will be a live-in father to the child, although he doesn't go so far as to become a husband to its mother. Everything is hunky dory for a while until Abbie meets Ben (Bratt) and falls head over heels. He wants to take her and the kid to New York, and what results is a custody battle for the child.

I admit that I was sucked in to seeing this film because of Rupert Everett. He was great in My Best Friend's Wedding, so I wanted to see more of him. Benjamin Bratt was the other reason I wanted to see this. So I guess they at least managed to get my money before I realised that these two weren't quite enough to make it the great film I was hoping for. But it will fill in two hours of what would be a misspent youth.

[Ed. This could be the Hope Floats of this semester].