One advantage that "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" has over the typical teen romantic comedy is a terrific soundtrack that perfectly matches the fleeting loyalties of teenage love. Adapted from the popular novel of the same name, the film follows a group of teen hipsters roaming late-night Lower Manhattan in search of a secret show by their favorite indie-rock band. The journey is more important than the destination, of course, because the characters are more interested in each other than they are in the band.

Nick O' Leary (Michael Cera, "Juno") has taken a "personal day" from school to wallow in the depression following his breakup with prissy Tris (Alexis Dziena). One of her classmates -- and frenemies -- is Norah Silverberg (Kat Dennings, "The House Bunny"), a straight-edge student who's been secretly enjoying the mix CDs that Nick has thoughtfully made and Tris has casually discarded.

At a performance that night by Nick's queercore band, Norah finally meets her musical soulmate. The two set off in their quest for the secret show, intermittently interrupted by awkward misunderstandings, car trouble (Nick drives a Yugo, of course) and a panicked search for a friend suffering the results of underage drinking. The film moves briskly under Peter Sollett's sure-handed direction, but it's the charming chemistry between Cera and Dennings that provides the emotional momentum.

Cera has been faithfully doing his part to help Hollywood go green, having continually recycled the sarcastically sweet character he played in TV's short-lived "Arrested Development." It works especially well here because Dennings plays a believable character (unlike, for example, one Juno MacGuff). It's obvious from the start that Nick and Norah are a natural pair, but their gradual realization is amusingly affecting. Will it last? We can't know, but it's uplifting to observe two young people discover "love" for the first time without drugs or alcohol acting as a catalyst.

Also refreshing is the film's setting: Through esoteric cultural references and deliberate framing of landmarks, Sollett successfully features New York City as a living, breathing character in its own right, a technique he also employed in 2002's brilliant "Raising Victor Vargas." While "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" never quite achieves the emotional maturity of that film, it's surprisingly fun, like that catchy pop song you keep putting on "repeat."