Film Review - Nick and Norah`s Infinite Playlist Film Review

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House review of Nick and Norah`s Infinite Playlist (2008)

I really like Michael Cera, the “Nick” in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, which is why I wanted to see this movie in the first place. I've been following him since Arrested Development, and while his material hasn't been great, he's the kind of actor who can take so-so material and elevate it above what it deserves. Pretty good for an actor this age—or any actor, really.

Kat Dennings, who plays Norah, also has something about her. Cera does teen angst in the form of sincerity and wholesomeness, but Dennings does it as cynicism and self-protection. At least, that’s how they do it in Nick and Norah, and it works really well. There was chemistry between them that showed itself as sweetness and hopefulness, and even a free-at-last sort of sexiness that each has only ever really found with the other.

Nick and Norah was okay, mostly because of Cera and Dennings. He's struggling with rejection by a girl who didn't really care about him, she's tired of either being used or playing second fiddle, and they somehow find each other in all that. It's really poignant; those struggles are real and very significant for that age--and these actors play them so that people in other age groups can relate to them. The music was an unexpected bonus for me; being a little bit older than Nick and Norah, I wasn’t sure how I would like it, but it was excellent, and worked smartly into the plot.

It’s when the film gets away from the developing relationship between Nick and Norah that it flounders. The supporting cast of bitchy ex-girlfriend, gay band-mates, and perpetually drunk best friend (played by Alexis Dziena, Aron Yoo, Rafi Gavron, and Ari Gaynor, respectively) add nothing but a sort of frenzied activity to the film, as though director Peter Sollett was afraid that the relationship wasn’t strong enough to carry the story. It really was strong enough, but it was hardly given a fair shot, because every time things got really moving, interesting, poignant, or sensual, we’d cut away to the drunk girl in the train station or the gay guys and their new boy-toy.

Some of those subplots (or as I call them, fillers that take us away from the good stuff) defied credibility. I just don't really buy the whole thing about the quest for orgasm and the extreme behavior of the bitchy ex-girlfriend. It was all way over the top and much more suited to an adult-oriented movie (though not necessarily a good one) rather than one supposedly set in high school. And I got very tired of the drunk best friend--I guess that was comic relief? I was happiest when Nick and Norah were dealing with their feelings for each other, getting to know each other, and realizing that their worth might not depend on the perceptions of the rotten people in their life. When those two were allowed to share the screen, I remembered exactly why I came.

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