Nick & Norah's Modest Pleasures

Script readers are perhaps over-fond of their I told you so's.  Too often ignored by the very people who've hired us, we delight in a private bout of schadenfreude when a script we've deemed a Pass nonetheless gets made, and tanks.  It's a regrettable truism: in most cases, you can dig up the original coverage on the script of a flawed and/or unsuccessful movie, and find the very same criticisms leveled at it, pre-production, that show up in movie critics' reviews of the released product, years later.

So I was especially delighted to experience a different kind of I was right! when Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist opened to mostly positive reviews this weekend, having so enjoyed my read of it three years ago.  Here's some of what I had to say about Lorene Scafaria's screenplay in coverage of it as a writing sample on August 1st, 2005:

A kind of cross between AFTER HOURS and the oeuvre of John Hughes...

A.O. Scott (NY Times, 10/03/08): "It’s like Martin Scorsese's After Hours filtered through the high school sensibility of John Hughes."

Mernit: ...It's a cut above the norm in that both Nick and Norah are exceptionally likable creations... 

Carrie Rickey (Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/03/08): "Nick and Norah springs high on the bounce of its hugely likable leads."

Mernit: ...Their dialogue is particularly sharp; there's a wry tone to their humor that makes these 18 year-olds seem very believable... 

David Ansen (Newsweek, 9/27/2008):  "Their sharp, self-conscious repartee has a snappiness that's closer to the way real suburban teenagers speak ..."

Mernit: ...the script starts to lose energy in its back end...

Keith Phipps (Onion's AV Club, 10/02/08): "The film drags as it reaches the hours before sunrise..."

Mernit: ...but while the largely low-key movie is almost teensy in its scope, if well-cast, in the hands of the right director it might really click with its target audience.

Ansen in Newsweek again: "It won't break any box-office records—it's not punchy enough—but it's easy to imagine it developing a passionate cult following."

You get the idea.  Meanwhile, the most important thrust of what I liked about Nick & Norah, echoed in every review I've read is that... well, to quote my immortal coverage one last time: What infuses the script is a nicely sustained tone of believable romantic passion, rare for such material, which nonetheless never takes itself too seriously.

That's the thing: unlike your average teen rom-com, prone to wretched farcical excess and generally more focused on the getting laid of it all than the more meaningful connecting, Nick & Norah make its romantic connection feel real.  It's a best-case scenario melding of two charismatic performers and two convincingly quirky roles.  Michael Cera (he who can infer volumes with one look of silent, affable conflictedness) and Kat Dennings (who matches him with her knowing blend of innocence and disaffected wariness) have credible chemistry.

And while this is a small movie made of small moments, the sum of them creates a very particular sort of romanticism.  Its New York City (under Peter Sollett's direction) is full of funky, sloppy, badly lit environs that are light years away from say, the exalted, exquisitely framed urban landscapes of Woody Allen's Manhattan, yet Nick & Norah succceeds in conveying the unique sensation of being on the loose in those fabled downtown streets at 4 a.m. -- a genuinely romantic feeling.

Don't want to oversell a picture that's about as ephemeral-but-moving as a good pop tune (True to its title, it is of course suffused with well-selected contemporary alt-rock; more than a few times my ears pricked up in Hey, that's on my iPod! appreciation).  Like good pop, it's as blissfully unpretentious as it is sincere, and while it's far from perfect, it has little hooks that'll stick in your head; Norah's casual assessment of Nick's ex -- "I could floss with that girl!" -- is still making me smile, as is a key image of lipstick on a windshield being wiped away.

I'm not the one to know how much of what's good here comes from the original novel by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan (my eternal youth cred only goes so far), but the supporting roles are neatly un-stereotypical -- a true achievement in such a familiar, often cliche-ridden genre.  And any movie that reaches its romantic apex in the hallowed bowels of Electric Ladyland Studios is a special one in my book (Full disclosure: I spent many happy hours recording in that House That Hendrix Built, back in the early '70s, so it was a thrill to be inside of it again).

Unlike the escapades of the original Nick and Nora in their Thin Man series of long ago, this Nick & Norah lacks a sophisticated blend of murder and martinis, its slacker non-detective story being merely a search for a cult band's secret gig location (and its alcoholic content, like, way messily over the top).  But as to its sweet and savvy romantic kick?  I believe even Asta the terrier would approve.

Comments

[E.C. Henry]

Wasn't planning on seeing this movie, UNTIL I read your review, Mr. Notradomus -- er... I mean Mr. Mernit. I (heart sign) all those who do coverages on scripts. Though I must admit, I wish they liked me better... Still, what an awesome responciblity; keepin' the bad stuff out, yet lettin' the good stuff in. Glad to know we have a seasoned pro such as yourself seperatin' the wheat from the chaff. Keep up the good work!

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

P.S. IF you EVER running across a script which pits Kat Dennings be pitted against Ellen Page PLEASE be sure to greenlight that one. I'd love to see it.

[J]

Whenever a movie is attached to an "indie" soundtrack, I almost always want to pass...but believable teenage characters are always worth seeing...

[Butch]

I look forward to seeing the movie when the wife and I can find a babysitter for a week night. ... Billy, I just finished shooting my first feature, a romantic comedy called "The Bride & The Grooms." Did you get my e-mail with the link to the trailer on YouTube? I'd be interested in your critique.

[Rachel Hauck]

hmmm... nice review, but I have a question. What's with the geeky looking heroes in films these days or on TV?

Still, the girl has to be gorgeous and weigh 90 lbs, but the guys are scrawny and geeky looking.

Where's the hero-hero?

Where's the show were the so-so looking, geeky girl gets the handsome dude or football star, or hunky math wiz?

Hmm?

Noo, I'm not bitter, really I'm not. LOL.

Just tired of never seeing the tables turn for the ladies.

Like, where's the Average Jane reality show, or the Ahston show where the girls are geeks and the guys are hunks?

Hmmmm

Hmmmm

[mernitman]

EC: Kat Dennings v. Ellen Page sound like fun to me -- maybe with some teen EC-like guy in the middle?

J: I know what you mean, and if I hadn't read the script, I prob'ly would've been way skeptical of this one.

Butch: Congrats again on the rom-com completion. Hope you can still afford that babysitter!

Rachel: You're absolutely right. So go for it -- write one!

[EL]

Most of the lovely parts of the movie are lifted from the book - David Levithan and Rachel Cohn deserve plenty of credit for making their book and the movie so funny and sharp and sweet. Recommended reading if you have time.

[mernitman]

Thanks for the tip, EL, and for answering a post musing (i.e. I wondered how much was them and how much the adapter).