Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist: Movie vs. Book

While sitting in a half filled theater waiting for a sneak preview of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, I feverishly try to finish reading the book that the upcoming movie is based on. I had 5 pages left as the one and only trailer (Quantum of Solace) appeared on the screen. As I later found out, those last few pages wouldn’t appear in the movie anyways.

Casting: The casting of most characters was done well. Michael Cera translated perfectly as Nick, as did Kat Dennings (Norah), Rafi Gavron (Dev), Aaron Yoo (Thom), and Ari Graynor (Caroline). The only characters I had a problem with was Tris (played by Alexis Dziena) and Tal (Jay Baruchel).

Soundtrack: While I thought the music in the movie worked well in the movie in that it didn’t seem out of place, I was wishing for more bands that were mentioned in the book. I would have liked to have heard songs by The Smiths, Death Cab for Cutie, or The Magnetic Fields. Every time Nick’s phone rang, The Cure ringtone always made me smile. For a movie with a big focus on music, the soundtrack left a lot to be desired.

Plot: This is where I had the most problems. Having read the book (and loved it) before seeing the movie, I was really hoping the movie would follow the book pretty closely. Unfortunately, this was not the case. The book starts at a show, while the movie understandably starts earlier in the day to give some back story that is told throughout the first few chapters of the book. The circumstances in which Nick and Norah finally meet are quite different in the movie, and I felt in the book it made more sense and created a better dynamic between the two of them. I’m not even going to go into the whole skewed Where’s Fluffy plot-line.
My biggest complaint is regarding Nick’s interactions with Tris and Norah’s with Tal. In the book, they are both trying to avoid their respective ex’s at all costs. This was not the case in the movie. Norah calls Tal on several occasions, and Nick gives Tris a ride home.
My favorite addition to the movie was the scene where after getting into a club without waiting in line, Nick asks Norah if she was on YouTube, which I hope was a subtle nod to Kat Dennings YouTube videos.

Overall: The book is easily one of the best young adult novels I have read since As Simple As Snow by Gregory Galloway. Unfortunately since I had just read the book, I spent most of the movie comparing the two. Hopefully I will be able to watch the movie without any mental interference when I see it again in a few days.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, September 28th, 2008 at 3:06 am and is filed under Books, Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist: Movie vs. Book”

1
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist | Derek Neuland
September 28th, 2008 03:32
[...] Edit: My comparison of the movie and the book [...]
2
Matt
September 28th, 2008 11:41
Looking at the soundtrack though, at least a few amazing players manage to show up. Vampire Weekend and Band of Horses are quite excellent and should really be looked into. I can’t speak for the rest of the bands listed, but I daresay that even these two groups manage to increase some of the value.

Are only the soundtrack songs used in the film, or do other pieces show up?

[Reply]
Derek Neuland Reply:
September 28th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
I wasn’t really familiar with most of the in movie songs, so I’m not sure.

[Reply]