Paper Heart

Charlyne Yi is looking for love… more importantly, what love is. That is the basis for her debut in Paper Heart. A charming Indie rom-com/documentary from director Nicholas Jasenovec, played by Jake Johnson in the movie. The real Nicholas Jasenovec, is never really seen on screen.

We are at times watching a movie in the process of being filmed, or watching the end product.

Ms. Yi did play herself in the movie. However, in one of her shows (she’s an Andy Kaufman-type performance comedian), she tricked the audience into believing she wasn’t wearing a wig. So it may not be her, but let’s assume it is some version of herself for our own sanity. The idea of searching for love has been explored throughout the years in numerous ‘road’ movies, but our protagonist in this film is different. She isn’t a lonely spinster, or jaded (according to her). She just wants to know what it is. (The ever eternal question, am I right folks?) How do you explain it, can you measure it, how do you express it, and how do you keep it.

The movies takes us to many different towns across America and introduces us to various couples of all ages and preferences, science professors and even Elvis impersonators to get their take. The neat part about the testimonials is that we get to see (through the adorable wire puppet re-creations by Yi and her father) the stories of some of the more interesting couples, which only adds to the movie’s charm.

The downside of the movie is how they introduce Michael Cera. Ms. Yi visits a romance novelist and they talk about how the novelist structures love in her books versus how people actually fall in love in real life.

The information Ms. Yi receives there coincidentally mirrors how she meets Mr. Cera. While this may be cute and coincidental in real life, in the modern indie it comes off as lazy and uninspired because so many independent features try to hard to be overly smart, cute and or funny—now tiresome.

However, the documentation of their movie relationship is absolutely perfect.
Their innocent and subtle discovery of love and its sudden destruction is even better than the other current indie rom-com (500) Days of Summer because as open and honest as that movie is about love, it’s still, “a story about love”—i.e. a Hollywood movie.

It still has movie idols (How much more indie idol like can you be than Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon Levitt?! and I answer with, “Only if you got Ben Gibbard to act along side of his Indie queen!”). It still has the standard fallin’-in-love montage, the fallin’-out-of-love montage, the rebuilding-myself-for-a-better-me montage, the good-to-see-you’re-ok scene and the I-met-someone-new scene. While some may argue that these flaws are irrelevant in Paper Heart because it leans toward a documentary, I believe that makes it relevant.

The film allows its authors to become characters in their own story, and is able to facilitate a more realistic connection to its audience. We see their emotions exposed and honest as the subjects they are interviewing and treat us to a further examination of the most confusing organ in the human body—the heart.

Paper Heart • Dolby® Digital surround sound in select theatres • Running Time: 88 Minutes • Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 • MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some language. • Distributed by Overture Films