Review of Paper Heart (2009) by Ray E — 30 Mar 2010

Paper Heart could be categorized as a documentary/romance/comedy. The film follows the story of Charlyne Yi, a girl that does not believe in true love mostly because she has never experienced it herself. She and her director are off to make a documentary about what love really is by interviewing people across the country. While doing so she meets Michael Cera (who plays himself). If you have ever seen Michael Cera in a film, then you already know his character by now. He's still that awkward quiet kid as always, no surprise at all. Soon Yi starts to get comfortable with Cera and decides to give him a chance, which means that all the cameras will be focused on the two of them. The rest of the movie includes Yi and Cera's relationship and the interviews with people in many other areas of the U.S.

The movie starts off with a scene of Yi standing in the street with a microphone asking people what true love really is. The results are a bunch of cliche answers about love at first sight and how you must grab a hold of it once you have found it. Honestly some of the worst parts in the film were with the interviews. It felt as if the people interviewed were just given a script to make their stories more interesting, so none of it ever felt real to me. Each of the stories that were told were also accompanied by a little interpretation with puppets acting out the people being interviewed, so it was always refeshing to see some originality. Out of all the people that Yi had talked to, the school children were by far the funniest. Yi asked the question "What is a perfect date in your opinion?" and the responses were hilarious to say the least.

While Yi is making her documentary she is also in a growing relationship with Michael Cera. At first Yi and Cera are just hanging out, but they soon turn into "boyfriend and girlfriend." The parts with Michael Cera are some of my favorite and some of my least favorite. Cera is really likeable, so I have to give him that. But on the other hand I didn't know what the movie was trying to accomplish with him in there. Documentary and fiction merged at these points so I didn't know if they were trying to make me believe it as if it were real or just fiction. They also sort of tried to copy what The Office always does in their shows. The cameras will be stalking the two around, and Cera will awkwardly look into the lense and then ask Yi why they must be followed all over the place. There is this one great scene that is pictured above where Cera and Yi randomly start running down a hill away from the camera men so that they can be in private. I thought it was really "cute," and I wanted some of the rest of the movie to be like that.

If Paper Heart was based off of effort, then I would give it an A. Yi really tried to make this movie her own, and think she partially succeeded. The set-up for the film was actually kind of original, and the paper dolls acting out scenes made the movie feel different from the rest. But the main problem was definitely the script. The interviews never felt real and I was never too interested in Yi and Cera's relationship. But if it is any consolation, the movie would not be as nearly entertaining without the two. What do you get when you mix two awkwardly social people? The answer is Paper Heart.