On Insomnia: Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by HMX
Insomnia is a cruel mistress; despite that, there are some nice aspects of finding myself awake – night after night – at 2 a.m. and beyond — the opportunity to watch movies I might otherwise not watch. That is the case tonight, as I find myself unable to sleep and with a middling curiosity to explore the features of my Roku Digital Video Player. The player was provided – for free – by Qwest and works quite nicely as I recently made the switch from Blockbuster Total Access to Netflix. The change had been coming, I was just too stubborn to change until Blockbuster change their policy on in-store returns. Following confirmation of the change – which they never sent me notice off – I closed the account and jumped ship to Netflix and I’ve been pretty happy every since.
But I digress. This isn’t to be a diatribe against Blockbuster, but a reflection of my thoughts on Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Admittedly, I chose this movie in hopes that I would be so bored I’d have no choice but to fall asleep, but it proved to be far more engaging than I had anticipated. Having no intentions to actually pay attention to the movie, I missed a portion of the beginning, only catching the fact that Nick made mix CDs for someone and they were somehow acquired by Norah. For me, the movie didn’t start in earnest until the club scene with some unknown local band playing. I later came to discover that it was Nick’s band with his trio of gay friends. I mention that only because it came up several times later in the movie as The Trio, Nick, Norah and Caroline attempted to track down some group named Fluffy.
In their quest for Fluffy (and love), Nick and Norah are carried along a chain of events that include finding Caroline, Norah’s drunk friend, who escapes from the back of a van after awaking from a drunken stupor and believing herself to have been kidnapped, confrontations with Nick’s ex, drag shows and an interesting scene where Norah’s orgasm is recorded in her father’s studio. Along the way Nick realizes that he is over Tris, his ex, Norah realizes that he man-toy is using her for free drinks and the hopes of landing a deal with her father and they both realize that they like each other. I believe Norah came to this realization much sooner than Nick, but in the end they skip out on Fluffy (and their respective ex-flings) to begin their new lives together – with Norah deciding to go to Brown to be closer to Nick.
It isn’t a great movie and I don’t regret not having seen it in theaters, but it is an entertaining way to waste 100 or so minutes. In typical romantic comedy style, they do end up together, but it is all about how they get there. I particularly enjoyed the Trio’s attempt to hook Nick – the only straight member of the band – up with Norah and some of the music selections. Nick bailing on Tris as she was doing a tease to You Sexy Thing and Dev head-butting Tal at the end, after a few too many slurs, definitely made my evening (and failed at putting me to sleep).
