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Movie Review: Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
'Nick & Norah' filled with fun and romance
By John Wirt
jwirt@theadvocate.com
Advocate movie critic
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out of 4 stars.
In the epic romantic comedy, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, two music-loving high school seniors spend a wild night in the big city.
Nick plays bass in a hardcore rock band. He’s still grieving for his ex-girlfriend, Tris, months after their breakup. Nick sends mix tapes to Tris in hopes his magical selections will bring her back to him.
When imperial teen Tris tosses Nick’s meticulously assembled tapes in the trash, Tris’ sort-of-friend at school, Norah, retrieves them. Norah loves the tapes so much that she wonders if their maker may be her soul mate.
Michael Cera of Juno fame plays the depressed-but-still-functioning Nick. Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist is the perfect follow-up to Juno for Cera. He’s great at sincerity, vulnerability and light comedy.
Kat Dennings co-stars as Norah. A natural actress, Dennings’ unconventional, non-Hollywood beauty turns luminous in the New York night. Previously seen in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, The House Bunny and numerous TV series, the actress makes Norah believably wise beyond her years. Dennings and Cera, playing off one another like simpatico musicians, are the best screen pairing of the year.
Peter Sollett directs Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist from a screenplay by Lorene Scafaria, which is based on the novel by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. The film’s chronological design — one night of misadventures, obstacles and opportunities — works beautifully. Nick and Norah unexpectedly meet and, through circumstances beyond their control, spend much of the night together.
As usual, Norah’s friend, Caroline (Ari Graynor), gets sloppy drunk. Caroline’s frequently unconscious state provides that apparently requisite ingredient of youth comedy, gross-out scenes. It’s slightly refreshing, though, that a girl rather than a guy gets this unpleasant duty.
Nick’s own friends, his band mates (Aaron Yoo and Rafi Gavron), take a sincere interest in his spurned-lover’s blues and want him to be free from Tris (Alexis Dziena). But when the controlling Tris sees Nick and Norah together, she does her best to get in the way.
With its freewheeling fun and romance, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is special enough to become a future romantic comedy classic. If only its actual playlist, meaning soundtrack, were better. Strange that a film in which music plays such an important role has such unmemorable music. No complaints, though, about the cast, story and after-hours New York state of mind that’s a character unto itself. They’ve got hit potential.
