Film Review By Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune Movie Critic

It depends on what sort of teenager you were (or are), and what kind of city you dreamed of conquering at that age. But "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist," taking place all over New York City during one offhandedly eventful night, is a modest charmer - the sort of date movie I would've liked when I was 16 or 17, if only because the beanpole-geek-so-uncool-he's-cool protagonist, played by the deceptively skillful Michael Cera, secures for himself a dream of a romantic partner, played by the equally disarming Kat Dennings.

Cera, the co-star of "Superbad" and "Juno," doesn't have to play "down" to high school age. The way he acts, and reacts, he's especially astute at capturing a certain kind of young adult, perched on a fence between hesitant adolescence and premature middle age.

Dennings is a little further along; she's a sleepy-eyed, corner-of-the-mouth wiseacre, a reluctant bombshell. In "Nick and Norah" you may not believe someone like her would find herself so much lower on the social food chain than Nick's bratty, horrible "Mean Girls"-inspired ex, played by Alexis Dziena. Yet Dennings draws you into the character's interior life. She and Cera share a knack for deadpan comedy. Neither performer lets you feel the strain of actors delivering a big scene, or even a heightened dramatic moment. They're throwaway artists who manage to win audiences over to their wry, sweet way of seeing things.

The film comes from a novel by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. Nick (Cera) is a graduating high school senior, raised in the New Jersey suburbs, currently nursing a broken heart. His ex, Tris (Dziena, unable to humanize the "Heathers" bitchery of her role), has moved on. Nick is stuck, consoling himself with making his latest heartache mix CD: "Road to Closure, Vol. 12."

He's also the lone heterosexual member of an alt-rock band. The plot - a series of obstacles and contrivances and coincidences - kicks in when Norah, the daughter of a high-rolling music industry executive, and her hard-drinking pal Caroline (Ari Graynor, really funny) catch Nick's act at a club. Thus begins an all-night odyssey, Scorsese's "After Hours" cut with plenty of cream and sugar. As Nick and Norah crisscross the island with their respective posses in search of their favorite band rumored to be playing somewhere in Manhattan, the two eventually intersect long enough to realize they're interested in each other. The film coasts on the appeal of its stars, and its depiction of Manhattan as a place where your true self can find true love.

The soundtrack's full of fresh, below-the-radar (for Hollywood) alt-rock, and in an unfortunate echo of Cameron Crowe's "Elizabethtown," the main characters' destiny is sealed once Norah gets hold of the mix CDs Nick makes for his callous ex. Some of the bits smack of pandering, such as a gross-out gag involving Norah's drunk friend retrieving a piece of gum from a Port Authority restroom toilet. And it's too bad "Nick and Norah" settles for setting up a romantic triangle wherein two of the characters seem like real people, and the third - Nick's ex - is pure caricature.

But director Peter Sollett loosens up the material every chance he can. As Nick bombs around in his yellow Yugo (which everybody keeps mistaking for a taxi), the film charts the increasingly involving progression of what could've been an ordinary teen romance. Sollett works easily and well with Cera and Dennings, and lends a touch of awkward realism to what, from a screenwriting perspective, is pure formula.

Sollett's earlier feature "Raising Victor Vargas" was a wonderful debut film. It's too bad six full years had to pass before "Nick and Norah." And it'll be a crime if it takes Sollett six years to make a follow-up.

MPAA rating: PG-13 (for mature thematic material, including teen drinking, sexuality, language and crude behavior).

Running time: 1:29

Starring: Michael Cera (Nick); Kat Dennings (Norah); Alexis Dziena (Tris); Ari Graynor (Caroline) Aaron Yoo (Thom); Jay Baruchel (Tal).

Directed by Peter Sollett; written by Lorene Scafaria, based on the novel by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan; photographed by Tom Richmond; edited by Myron Kerstein; production design by David Doernberg; music by Mark Mothersbaugh; produced by Kerry Kohansky, Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz and Andrew Miano. A Columbia Pictures release.

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