'Nick & Norah' infinitely charming
"Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist" is a pungent, nocturnal metropolitan romantic comedy light on plot, but heavy on chemistry between its two appealing main actors.
Plus, it's a movie with a genuine affection for teens and the music culture in a big city, and it comes with edgy elements that give it a gritty, urban authenticity not seen in most teen rom-coms.
For one, this is the first mainstream romantic comedy I've seen where the main high school student admits she's dating a friend with benefits. (That's teen-speak for "with sex.")
For another, the supporting cast includes a best female friend who goes on under-age alcoholic benders, and a wannabe rock band consisting mostly of young gay friends of the main guy.
So, a remake of a Rock Hudson/Doris Day rom-com this ain't. Directed with intelligence and fun by Peter Sollett, "Nick & Norah" doesn't romanticize anything except romance, and maybe New York City, put on display as a kind of mystical place that metamorphoses into another world after dark.
"Nick & Norah" (which has nothing to do with Dashiell Hammet's famous detectives Nick and Norah Charles) stars Michael Cera, the lovable boyfriend from "Juno," as Nick, a high school schlub pining for his snotty girlfriend Tris (Alexis Dziena) who dumped him on his B-day.
He continues to send her mix tapes, like his latest, "Road to Closure: Vol. 12." Tris throws them away, but one of her tentative friends, Norah (Kat Dennings, the butchy intellectual in "The House Bunny") retrieves them and thinks Nick's gesture very romantic.
One Friday night in the hot Big Apple, Nick and Norah meet when Norah, embarrassed by Tris that she doesn't have a date at a night club, boldly walks up to Nick and asks him to be her boyfriend for a while. He doesn't mind, and the two take off on on an all-night mission to find a mysterious band called "Where's Fluffy?"
They soon get a secondary mission. The couple rallies friends to find Norah's missing best bud Caroline (a naturally comedic Ari Graynor), who's looped on booze and lost somewhere in the city. Along the way, Nick and Norah encounter goofball characters and improbable situations. (If there's any doubt this movie is a fantasy, Nick has no trouble parking his beat-up Yugo in front of wherever he wants to be.)
Of course, there's no doubt that these all-night odysseys have no other purpose than for Nick and Norah to discover they're made for each other. Which they do, but they earn it. They really talk to each other, and discover they're musical soul-mates.
It would be a stretch to call the talented Cera the Jimmy Stewart of his generation. Still, his awkward ambling and staccatto stuttering suggests a young Stewart feeling his way through the 21st-century world. Cera's unpolished, anything-but-slick persona makes him a watchable natural.
With her full, ripe lips and reserved sexuality on full throttle, Dennings enjoys a break-through role after a string of supporting movie roles and TV shows, such as "E.R."
Even if "Nick and Norah" occasionally succumbs to gross-out toilet humor (Don't chew that gum out of the toilet bowl!) and cheap verbal cliches ("I can't do this!" Norahh shrieks. "Trust me!" Nick says), Lorene Scafaria's screenplay occasionally produces a gem.
Take the time Nick's gay pal Dev (Rafi Gavron) advises Norah on bra-wear for the night.
"Nick is definitely worth the underwire!" he says.
"Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist"
Rating: 3 stars
Starring: Michael Cera, Kat Dennings, Ari Graynor, Alexis Dziena
Directed by: Peter Sollett
Other: A Columbia Pictures release. Rated PG-13 (drinking, language, sexual situations, crude behavior). 89 minutes.
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