Absolute genius at it's finest. This flick was adapted for the big screen from Nick Hornby's 1995 novel. Cusack co-wrote, co-produced and starred in it. He plays Rob Gordon, who is in the habit of cataloguing and creating lists for all the things in life one can put in order. Through the order, perhaps he will be able to find control. We see him doing this with the past and present women in his life.

At the beginning of the flick, his current live-in lover is on her way out. She is leaving him, moving out to get some space to analyze their relationship. This is the catapult that launches him into rage, despair and a whole range of the typical emotional spectrum we all go through when being dumped.

He runs an independent vinyl store and much of the beauty of the film comes from he and his two elitist employees, played by Jack Black and another actor whose name escapes me. 'And the geeks he's got as employees are beyond firing because they're working just for the contact with their beloved vinyl recordings and the opportunities this affords them for expressing their encyclopedic knowledge of an obscure and elitist subcultural sector of the music universe. They are clearly experts with deep memory for the bizarre, the afflicted, the stray, the experimental and the sonic extreme.'

Rob--who is very much stuck in his way--does undergo transformation. He matures throughout the film, albeit a stubborn evolution. He is able to analyze the top five relationships he had and finally let go of some very extreme and unhealthy anger he'd been holding onto.

Lisa Bonet has a small role as a dynamo and a convincing vocalist as one of Cusack's modern-day conquests. Rob uses the old trusted standby of the broken heart to get her in bed, but her character isn't as concerned with his motives as her own needs: "It's a biological need (sex)."

Using a candid, deadpan narration technique, it works. Cusack is compelling and charming. We root for him, in spite of all his flaws and immature view points. It's a movie that is filled with a lot of very user-friendly insights on relationships and the ride is fun.