XIV

It's a little scary how quickly ones' kids grow up. My daughter Sara just turned 14. I've been taking the same photos of her for half her life now:

The bottom right image is from a small gathering Sara had yesterday (too informal to call a birthday party any more), after which I took her and two of her friends to see Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, which just opened.

Despite a few awkward transitions near the end, I enjoyed the movie a lot, and thought it was quite sweet. It follows the standard romantic-comedy plotline, but it does it well. Norah is refreshingly un-glamorous, Nick is refreshingly un-macho, and there's plenty of believable chemistry between them from their first cute meetup. I also liked the way it's treated as unexceptional that all of Nick's close friends are gay. My favorite moment was near the middle, when one of those friends tells Nick the secret to life (and the Beatles' success): “I want to hold your hand,” making a personal connection, looking for love rather than sex, and then demonstrates the point by holding Nick's hand. The strong friendship between Norah and her drunk friend Caroline works well as a side theme and motivating force throughout the movie, too, even though Caroline's part was mostly played for comic relief. And the indie soundtrack plays right into my tastes. Overall I'd grade it a B: it's not going to be a contender for best movie of the year, but worth seeing in the theaters. Judging from their reactions, my daughter and her friends would rate it even higher.