Indie Teen Comedy with a Great Soundtrack

Rating: 6/10 (27 March 2010)

I remember back about a year ago I stumbled upon a film called Juno, one of the stars of which was Michael Cera. Now, one of the many things I really liked that film was the understated performance of said Mr Cera. And so we come to 'Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist', a really bad title IMHO. It's not a bad film, there's a lot to admire, it just fell slightly short of the mark for me. But more of that later, let me tell you a little of the rather complicated plot
Nick is depressed, he's been dating Tris for a while and she's dumped him. He spends his time making mix CDs for her and generally feeling sorry for himself. Oh, and he's a huge fan of a band called 'Where's Fluffy'. Anyway, he is in a band himself, and the other band members, Thom and Dev, who are gay by the way, decide to take him out into New York, where they have a gig. Meanwhile, Norah and her best friend, Caroline, are also planning a night out in the Big Apple. They know Tris from school and Norah has been listening to, and liking, Nick's CDs that Tris has thrown away. Nick's band is playing in a club when Tris walks in with her new boyfriend. Of course Nick is distracted by this. Caroline has got drunk and Norah is left alone. When Tris comes up to her and asks her who she's with, she says she's with her boyfriend and proceeds to go and kiss Nick, who she's never met before. (Complicated enough so far?) Deciding to help Norah take Caroline home, Nick helps them to his car but before they can leave, the rest of the band decide Nick and Norah should get together and offer to take Caroline home so the couple can go and find where 'Fluffy' is playing that night (it's a secret). From here there are adventures, love, hate, kidnapping and a whole bunch of stuff you're better off finding out by watching it yourselves (he said, wanting to keep the spoiler count to a minimum).
I found it quite an engaging film for the most part, with a really good soundtrack and some good performances. The budget was obviously not the biggest, but I thought they production team did a great job despite this. So, good performances from Michael Cera as Nick, Kat Dennings as Norah, Aaron Yoo as Thom, Rafi Gavron as Dev, Ari Graynor as Caroline and Alexis Dziena as Tris.
It's a nice gentle teen comedy with some really great moments in it, but, for me, it kind of lost its way towards the end. When I felt the story should be building to a big finish, it all kind of fell flat. Nothing to do with the performances, I think the writers must have just run out of ideas. For all that, it's a pretty nice watch and I kind of recommend the first three quarters but you'll watch all of it, I know you will.
My score: 6.2/10