Paper Heart

Release Year: 2009

Director: Nicholas Jasenovec

Review: An odd sort of film, blending the line between fiction and reality.  It would best be described as a mockumentary, but I'm not sure that's entirely what it is.  The premise is Charlyne Yi goes around interviewing people on what they think love is.  She doesn't believe in love, but meets Michael Cera in the process of filming and begins to develop feelings for him.  The two are dating in real life, and they don't play characters in the movie, yet its all fictitious,  so again its hard to place what type of film this is.  If you find Yi and Cera's personality annoying you will not like this film.  It's their shtick for the entire movie.  

It is very sweet film.  It oozes with an almost unbearable adorableness throughout, but manages to keep the material very light and funny.  There aren't too many hearty laugh out loud moments, but it will keep a stupid grin plastered on your face for a good portion of it.  The biggest detractor was that it was trying to be too quirky at times.  Periodically Yi would put on a little puppet show with paper people acting out a story by one of her interview subjects.  These did not work, and just felt like they were shoved in to add another layer of quirk.  To make things worse was the ending to the film.  It's not that I need a nice wrap up ending, but even a non-ending would better than what they choose to do.  The enjoyment level is going to be determined by how much you like Yi and Cera.  I was smitten by them and thought it was a very pleasant movie.
Rating: 3/5