The Cinema of the Four

Nick and Norah’s Ultimate Playlist

Any student of movies and detection must find the names “Nick” and “Nora” (however the spelling) both a pleasant and intriguing combination. Based on a Dashiell Hammett novel about a retired detective and his socialite wife, a series of movies followed the exploits of “the Thin Man” and his wife, one of those witty and intelligent couples that anyone would invite to a dinner party. And while “Nick and Norah’s Ultimate Playlist” has nothing to do with that duo of antiquity, the couple in this new film are not without their wit and charm.

Michael Cera from the cult TV comedy “Arrested Development” and Kat Dennings (most recently see in “The House Bunny”) are a pair of high schoolers whose lives are not exactly going well. He’s been dumped by his too-attractive girlfriend and she’s trying to make sense of life as the daughter of a famous father. “Nick and Norah’s Ultimate Playlist” chronicles the one night, dusk until dawn, when their paths cross and their lives come together. Like their namesakes, Nick and Norah art bright and talented folk, fun to watch, and their wanderings through night-time Manhattan are as intriguing as many a modern detective tale.

Yes, it is just one more “boy meets girl” story, but sometimes, with enough fresh details, that is enough. (And if the chewing gum subplot doesn't stick with you long after seeing it, you can safely say that you have no obsessive-compulsive tendencies whatsoever.)

What Great-grandfather Sherlock might have said:
“Even so trivial a matter as cooking an egg demands an attention which is conscious of the passage of time and incompatible with the love romance.”