Paper Heart

Paper Heart
2009
Directed By Nicholas Jasenovec



SYNOPSIS

Comedienne Charlene Yi doesn't believe in love. She sets out across America to try and understand just what love is. Along the way she meets Michael Cera.



MY THOUGHTS

This unique quasi-documentary is a unique look at one of life's most difficult concepts.

Yi and the film crew head all over the country talking to people about love. This I thought was the most interesting and enlightening part of the film. She speaks to young and old about the good and bad sides of love. It's fascinating how everyone had a very different concept of love.

Those scenes feel intruded upon, when they add Yi's budding romance with Michael Cera. These scenes veer the film off course and it loses focus while juggling the two narratives.
The young couple constantly complains about cameras being in the way, which gets annoying after the second mention. After you've heard it 30 times, you're annoyed.

Several liberties were taken to make Paper Heart not a real documentary. The director, who is a character in the film, is played by Jake M. Johnson and not the actual director (yet the character and director share the same name.) Also Yi and Cera were a couple before the film was made.

Paper Heart does have a charming quality to it, but it does wear thin after awhile. It has a good sense of humor too, but I could never describe it as 'hilarious.'

Overall, It's a good (but not great) way to spend an hour and a half.