Cohn & Levithan will have a LOT of upset fans...

Rating: 3/10 (4 October 2008)

Because this movie was absolutely nothing like the book. The plot was completely changed, the relationship between the main characters was flipped, and the whole story just played out WRONG. The casting choices, in my opinion, could have been better. I am a huge fan of the novel, and I was really disappointed.
And, to yessdanc's comment, if THEY knew anything, they'd know that the screenwriter did not choose the character's names; Rachel Cohn and David Levithan did. If you read Cohn's website, you'd learn that she intentionally chose the names of the characters to pay tribute to the movie.
"I wanted to write about two New Jersey, straight-edge characters named Nick and Norah (after the Thin Man movies)..." "...we weren't trying to write an updated Thin Man (though the temptation to put a dog named Asta in our book was certainly there). Mostly what we both always liked from the original books/movies was the warm and fun banter between Nick & Nora Charles, and we hoped to somehow infuse that spirit into our teen characters."