I love the story concept of Nick and Nora, and it is not un-enjoyable, I suppose (how’s that for a non-endorsement endorsement?) It has its moments, and it is cute and very earnest which tends to smooth over its problems a bit. It also opens fairly strongly, which helps sustain it. The fact that the critics gave this worse reviews that Zack & Miri is basically a joke.

But the overall story arc is just not worked out adequately, and the dialog is all over the place: sometimes quirky and funny, sometimes downright dull. Plus, you never see the lead characters bond over their love of music; this is highly problematic because the whole relationship is supposed to spring from Kat Denning’s feelings about Michael Cera’s mix tapes that she “saves” and listens to after they are summarily discarded by her friend, the bitchy object of Cera’s affections. I also did not believe for one second that Michael Cera would be in a band with three sexually crazed gay guys.

Michael Cera is developing an alarming new tic: he is now channeling Mark Ruffalo’s weirdest and most unattractive facial expressions. This is not a good career move for him, in my opinion. I hope he doesn’t think he is maturing his acting in any way by doing so.

Kat Dennings, on the other hand, seems to be showing the effects of the Jennifer Connelly school of acting: deliver all your lines looking down at the ground. This works for Jennifer Connelly because … well, she looks like Jennifer Connelly. But I have not yet formed an opinion on how well this approach works for Kat Dennings – it’s a bit mixed, really.

It’s not a bad little film, but it doesn’t really work very well, and is a little dull.