High Fidelity

It’s hard to think of a film with such a clear divide between its spirited first half and its functional second half. The first half is great: an energetic character study focused on a holier-than-thou white manchild, director Stephen Frears shows his eye for framing and his ear for electricity. The second half suffers from a usual affliction: growth and maturity are necessary, but there’s got to be a way of depicting it that doesn’t make a work suffer as much as it does here. An uneven, effective, well-made comedy that works better at 95 minutes than its two hours.

7