Review of Paper Heart (2009) by Aaron N — 21 Dec 2009
Nick: Your guys' relationship is definitely part of this movie now.
You know, beneath many of the reasons that this movie will be disliked by different groups of people, due to the aspects of it that make it "hip", "trendy", "indie", or any other buzz words that this could fall under, there is a well acted film here. This is a quasi-documentary that takes a premise and films actual stories/conversations, re-enacts some of them with cardboard cut out art, and finally places a relationship story into the mix as well. It doesn't all work to make a smooth feature, but I got enjoyment out of its eccentricities.
Comedian/Musician Charlyne Yi stars as herself in a documentary looking to have her travel around the country in order to find out if she can ever believe in love. She travels to various locations with the film crew, including the director Nick, who is played by an actor and not the actual director, Nick Jasenovec, and interviews various people about their experience with love. Some of the stories shared are, as I mentioned, re-enacted in creative cardboard art shows.
During Charlyne's journey, she befriends actor Michael Cera (playing a version of himself) and the two eventually strike up a real relationship, which will now be captured within the documentary (You shouldn't have to think too hard about if this is an actual event that occurred in this film).
This film really hits its quirky notes hard in certain aspects, but I wasn't bugged by this. The real problems I had were with the overall tone change within the film during its last act. It follows an obvious structure that just isn't too intriguing. However, knowing that the "movie" aspect of this film (opposed to the doc) is not in fact real, I did appreciate the filmmaking aspect when handling these characters, which showed some fine acting from the three main performances.
This is certainly not a perfect film, but I liked what it tried to do enough to enjoy it.
Seth Rogan: Your love glass is half full.
This review of Paper Heart (2009) was written by Aaron N on 21 Dec 2009.
Paper Heart has generally received mixed reviews.
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