Michael Cera plays Nick, not the Nick he played in Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist, but another in a series of virgin boys (see Arrested Development, Juno, Superbad) in this adaptation of C.D. Payne’s coming-of-age novel. Saddled with a loser-dating mom (Jean Smart) and a meek personality, Nick meets Sheeni (Portia Doubleday) on a holiday and is smitten. Screenwriter Gustin Nash (Charlie Bartlett) use a shared love of foreign film directors (he, Fellini; she, Goddard) and classic vocalists (he, Sinatra; she, Serge Gainesbourg) as an easy shorthand to depict their right-for-each-otherness. It’s one thing to have a 16-year-old be into Goddard’s Breathless (1960) and quite another for her to assume, upon first meeting Nick, that he’s heard of it, let alone seen it. But the movie is short and not about the falling in love; it doesn’t really have time to get far into its characters’ shared love of turntables and middle-20th-century culture, nor whether they are truly meant to be for all time. No, it is about the special impediments to the progress of young love, and how Nick overcomes them.
To surmount these obstacles, Nick imagines himself, as bold, devil-may-care François, who appeals to Sheeni’s love of French things, notably the actor Jean-Paul Belmondo. Perhaps Nick is inspired by Play It Again, Sam, in which the imagined ghost of Humphrey Bogart inspires Woody Allen. The Nick-as-François bits account for only a few minutes of screen time, but do at least demonstrate Cera’s ability to play something other than the one-step-above-nerdy guy. Oh, and they’re funny. Lying and other misbehavior ensue.
IMDB link
viewed 1/5/10 at UA Main Street Manayunk (PFS screening)
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