THE PROBLEMS of young love are treated with wit and sensitivity in Peter Sollett's endearing Nick Norah's Infinite Playlist, already tagged as this year's Junoand not least because it features the wonderfully natural Michael Cera, who played the young father-to-be in that serious comedy.
This time Cera plays Nick O’Leary, a shy, uptight New Jersey teen who plays bass in a rock trio with his gay best friends (Rafi Gavron and Aaron Yoo).
Heartbroken to be dropped by his selfish girlfriend (Alexis Dziena), Nick persists in mixing CDs for her, and three weeks after their break-up he's sending her a compilation named Road to Closure Vol 12. "You don't know what it's like to be straight," he tells his bandmates. "It's awful."
The screenplay sympathises with Nick, who finds himself awkwardly thrown together with the much more confident Norah Silverberg (Kat Dennings from Charlie Bartlett), who has split up with her older boyfriend (Jay Baruchel).
There follows an eventful night in New York as the central characters and their friends seek out a secret gig featuring their favourite underground band. The consequences are alternately tender and exuberant in this appealing comedy-romance, which is often very funny with its running gags involving the misadventures of Norah’s over-imbibing pal (the spirited Ari Graynor).
The film is the second feature directed by Peter Sollett after his promising debut, Raising Victor Vargas(2002), another affecting tale of first love and coming of age in downtown Manhattan.
Nick and Norah are played with such evident chemistry by Cera and Dennings that it doesn’t matter if the resolution is flagged well in advance. The location footage of the city that never sleeps contributes to the lively atmosphere, as does the soundtrack signalled in the movie’s title.
