I agreed that what really matters is what you like, not what you are like... Books, records, films - these things matter.
No 446 - High Fidelity Director - Stephen Frears Narration is a tricky cinematic feat. It is perfectly normal for a book to be written in first person, or to be written in a style that directly targets its audience. "You may be wondering, dear reader, why I - a humble plumber from Constantinople did blah blah blah...." However this is a very difficult thing to convey in filmic terms. A narrator and breaking the fourth wall is a very risky move. Which can sometimes work and sometimes feel like a lazy inability to convey emotion. Rather than a narration, we have a protagonist who is also the narrator. The riskiest of risky moves as he flips out of the film to tell the viewer something, whilst surrounded by oblivious co-stars and extras. This film presents itself as a story of love and music, but it isn't. It is a story about lists. John Cusack's Rob has a near- autistic obsession with lists. He loves music and records, OBSESSES over music and records because it can...