NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST
2008
Written by Lorene Scafaria, based on the novel by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Directed by Peter Sollett
A week ago, when Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist came out in theaters, I was milling about Wal-Mart, as I am wont to do. I was loitering around their pathetic excuse for a book section, trying in vain to find something worthwhile. I was about to give up, but then out of the corner of my eye I saw a copy of the novel Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and since my friend Will had just been telling me how much he'd loved it, I picked it up and began reading. Within five minutes, I knew I wouldn't be leaving the store without it.
It was witty, funny, and emotional, instantly striking a chord with me (much in the same manner that Frank Portman's King Dork did). It's not a book you live with; at under 200 pages and taking place over the course of one very interesting evening, it's a book to be devoured. And devour it I did, finishing it the next day. I had initially intended to blaze through the book so I could see the movie that weekend, but ended up blazing through just because I had to. So I shortly found myself at the theater preparing to watch the film adaptation. The fact that I was the only one there was something of an omen.
Because, for all that it tries to do and all of the talent that it contains, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is nothing more than the simplistic sitcom iteration of the novel. Sure, it still follows Nick (Michael Cera, he of the awkward puppy dog face), who is the only straight member of a three-piece queercore band lacking in the way of percussion, and who is still reeling after his break-up with hot girl Tris (Alexis Dziena). Sure, it still follows Norah (Kat Dennings), who is the snarky/sweet Jewish daughter of a famous record executive, and who is still reeling after her break-up with Greek lout Tal (Jay Baruchel). Sure, it still follows the two as they meet after a gig at which Nick's band the Jerk Offs (changed from the Fuck Offs in the book) have played and spend a complicated night getting to know each other.
But so much of the book's heart and subtlety have been washed away in favor of standard romcom contrivances and PG-13 raunch. The first clue that something is amiss is that at the club where they meet, Norah asks Nick to be her boyfriend for five minutes to make Tris think she's with someone, which inadvertently makes Tris jealous (Norah is "friends" with Tris, though she and Nick have never met and therefore have no idea who the other is). This sends Tris off into stereotypical bitch mode for the rest of the movie, dragging along her boneheaded boytoy as she attempts to get Nick back, at one point even doing a striptease for him to the tune of "You Sexy Thing." In the book, Nick's the one who asks Norah to be his five-minute girlfriend in an attempt to make Tris jealous, an attempt which utterly fails yet leads to several fascinating conversations between Tris and Norah. Conversations in which we realize that Tris is so not the stereotype which all of the other characters, as well as the reader, are willing to assign her. The movie doesn't bother to give her a brain.
There are a couple of other dumb subplots horned in here as well. Norah's drunk friend Caroline (Ari Graynor) is sent off with Nick's gay friends Thom (Aaron Yoo) and Dev (Rafi Gavron) so Nick and Norah can spend some time together. This happens in the book as well, though in the movie it cannot go without incident, and for some reason a large chunk of the movie is devoted to a haphazard search for Caroline once Thom and Dev lose her. This allows for a delightful scene in which Caroline pukes in a train station toilet, then drops her gum in the bowl and goes fishing for it. The sarcasm in my voice I hope you will notice. Another search, for the location of a secret show being played by their favorite band Where's Fluffy, runs throughout the movie. It allows for some seriously unnecessary clue-finding and deduction, and ultimately amounts to little more than absolutely nothing.
I of course recognize that movies and books are different mediums, and it's important to realize that even wholly independent of the book, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is still a bad movie. Peter Sollett's camera is artless and confused, many of the shots just as aimless and unimaginative as Lorene Scafaria's script, sort of like a bad TV movie writ large. There's one particularly painful scene during which Caroline lies drunk in the back of Nick's Yugo, looking all starry-eyed out at Nick, Norah, and the others trying to get her to unlock the door. Sollett lingers on this odd moment for what seems like a small eternity, the soundtrack all the while playing some weirdly upbeat tune whose blips and bloops would sound more at home on a Game Boy. For a movie whose characters purport to be hip music experts, Nick and Norah sure has some shitty music. I see on the CD soundtrack listing that there's a song by the hot indie band Vampire Weekend, though it's a "soundtrack version." I can only assume this means that the song was sucked dry of all of Vampire Weekend's color and creativity because I definitely didn't recognize it.
The movie's biggest flaw, though, is simply that Michael Cera and Kat Dennings don't have much in the way of genuine romantic chemistry. Cera plays yet another riff on the same character he's been playing since his Arrested Development days, only here his shtick is becoming tired, while Dennings fails to create much of a personality with what the script gives her. And the script is what I will choose to blame here, because both Cera and Dennings are incredibly talented actors who I believe would normally be capable of generating some heat, and it certainly wasn't their decision to turn a wonderful novel into a vapid, one-dimensional sub-Superbad.
- Arlo J. Wiley
October 10, 2008
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