Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Robert Hammerle

October 07, 2008 by Robert Hammerle

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"A-" Rating by Robert W. Hammerle

The only accurate word that can do the exquisite "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" justice is "sublime." It is intelligent, sweet, romantic, witty and slightly subversive. It is fully as entertaining as it's tantalizing trailers suggested.

As Nick and Norah, Michael Cera and Kat Dennings make for a beguiling couple. Cera builds upon the understated "every man" that he played so well in "Juno," while Ms. Dennings radiates an intelligence that only enhances her beauty.

"Nick and Norah" takes place during one evening in New York where young music lovers are participating in a quest to find the location of a popular underground band known as "Fluffy." Nick is reeling from depression as a result of being dumped by his self-centered girlfriend (the movie begins with him hold-up in his apartment taking what he calls a "mental health day"), while Norah and her friend Caroline (Ari Graynor) are simply out to have a good time.

As fate would have it, Nick plays in a small band (it is important to note that he is the only heterosexual in the band), and he is coaxed by his other band members to play a gig with the hope of finding "Fluffy." For reasons that I will not give away, Nick meets Norah when the band finishes playing, and their attraction to each other is evident to everyone but themselves.

Mr. Cera and Ms. Dennings are enormously appealing together, and their dance around each other is both touching and extraordinarily funny. Nick cannot stop himself from being pathetic while he whines about his philandering girlfriend, and Norah is not the type of girl who suffers fools lightly. Their emotional tug and pull, much of it occurring in Nick's beat-up yellow Yugo, is extraordinarily, refreshingly honest.

But while there is not a misplaced scene when Cera and Dennings are on the screen together, there are subplots which define this wonderful film. First and foremost is Ms. Graynor, who makes Caroline one of the great party girls in cinema history. Her definition of a good time is to get hopelessly intoxicated and count on Norah to take care of her.

While there is nothing attractive on any level once Caroline gets loaded, her misadventures when she becomes temporarily lost on the streets of New York is the stuff of legends. This is clearly a woman for whom belching and vomiting are second nature.

Additionally, one should also pay tribute to Alexis Dziena, who plays Nick's scheming ex-girlfriend Tris. She is convincing at playing a self-centered young woman who is use to getting her own way. She dumps Nick without the slightest care, and only wants him back when she sees his obvious attraction to Norah. While there is little surprise in her eventual comeuppance, there is undeniable satisfaction when it occurs.

And no review of this film could fail to mention its extraordinary soundtrack. As with the music in last year's "Juno" and "Once," I suspect that many of you will be hunting down the CD, and it's not hard to predict that you will find it worth the price.

"Nick and Norah" is a charming romantic comedy that captures the utter bliss of young love. In a scene that reflects the spirit of the movie, one of Nick's band mates, played with a great deal of spirit by Aaron Yoo, tells him why the Beatles were so historically important as compared to other bands. As he grabs Nick's hand, he tells him that while most bands deal with love in terms of bliss, heartbreak and breakups, the Beatles captured the simplicity of romance with their first song, 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand'."

"Nick and Norah" similarly captures the indefinable essence of walking through some Art Museum Gardens on a lazy, summer day holding the hand of someone that you love. Anybody remember that feeling?

Forum: Movies

Tags: 

Michael Cera, Kat Dennings, Ari Graynor, Alexis Dziena, Aaron Yoo, comedy, drama, Music, romance, “Juno, ” “Once, ” Beatles

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