91Èȱ¬

From Nick Hornby's best-selling novel "High Fidelity", director Stephen Frears brings an amusing, true-to-life look at the trials and errors of dating and relationships.

Set in Chicago (as opposed to the novel's North London) during the 80s, the film centres around thirtysomething, music fanatic, record shop owner Rob (John Cusack), whose life falls apart when his latest girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle) walks out on him. With a string of ex-girlfriends behind him, Rob decides to track down his past lovers and find out what it is that makes him such a hopeless partner.

Rob's voyage of self-discovery brings us an entertaining insight of failed relationships, creating hilarious results and cringingly truthful scenes that most of the male audience would certainly relate to.

With such great performances from Cusack and his two oddball employees (Black and Louiso), and a gorgeous collection of ex-girlfriends (Bonet and Zeta-Jones), the film easily gets away with its American transition without jeopardising Hornby's original.

Music plays a big part in the film (Cusack and his colleagues have a top-five list of songs to match every mood) and the well chosen 80s soundtrack is sure to give the viewer a trip back down memory lane.

On the whole it's a fun film that is pretty much guaranteed as much success as the novel enjoyed, proving that page to screen can work with effective results if you have the right actors (Cusack's comic timing enhanced with Black and Louiso's socially-inept duo) and authenticity. A huge hit this summer for anyone who's ever fallen out of a relationship - on both sides of the Atlantic.