Review of Paper Heart (2009) by Richard C — 23 Dec 2009

Paper Heart is not really a documentary, nor is it really a fictional film. In it, Charlyne Yi, who I regretfully can not find humorous, and Michael Cera, who I do genuinely enjoy, meet, flirt, date, etc. All this whilst Charlyne and her faithful film crew drive across the country trying to ?find the true meaning of love?.

Listen, there have been a lot of movies that have half heartedly attempted to explain love. However none have pretended to be as successful as Paper Heart. Charlyne Yi ?does not believe in love? therefore she is as biased a documentarian as any other. Because she is not passively indifferent to the idea of love, she is legitimately not fond of the idea at all. Not even a little bit. Because of this, she refuses to admit that she loves Michael (playing himself, of course) and we waste a good fifteen to twenty minutes of film time with forced drama.

However, if it is the scripted portion of the film that fails, it is the legitimate (I believe anyway) documentary bits that are truly fun to watch. In these segments, Charlyne asks an Elvis impersonator, a divorce court judge and his wife and a woman who organizes weddings at the ?White Chapel? in Las Vegas. When Charlyne and her director Nick can manage to keep quiet long enough for these people to tell their stories, the film shines. And thankfully quite brightly enough to phase out the negativity I feel towards the half hearted Nick and ?Chuck? (Charlyne) scenes.

This is a film that does not answer any questions, however it would like you to believe it does. But it warms the heart with great stories from its? participants, and rather wonderful, albeit one or two too many, Yi puppet sequences. Paper Heart is charming, if not profound.

3.5/5.