a SIFF 2009 review
Charming Paper a Heartfelt Mockumentary
Comedian and musician Charlyne Yi doesn’t know if she believes in love. To find out whether or not it exists, she decides to crisscross the country interviewing people about what love is, whether or not they think it matters and if they think she might someday experience it for herself. During this journey she comes into contact with fellow actor Michael Cera, their budding relationship threatening to derail the documentary sending it in a direction no one involved anticipated.
Michael Cera and Charlyne Yi in Overture Films' Paper Heart
Paper Heart is a good-natured hoot. Made very much in the Borat and Brüno mold (only without the cynicism or grotesquery), the mockumentary is a thoughtful and gentle romantic journey that’s a lot of fun. While not earth-shattering or going to change the world, it is a film that made me laugh, chuckle, swoon and cry, and when it was over I walked out of the theater feeling as light as a feather and as happy as a clam.
Let me tell you, after a summer full of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Land of the Lost, I Love You, Beth Cooper, The Ugly Truth and Next Day Air when something like Yi’s little marvel comes along happiness is a feeling I’m not about to speak ill of. She and fellow co-writer/director Nicholas Jasenovec may not do anything different but what they do put up on the screen is filled to the brim with joy. They deftly weave their fictional Hollywood love story with real interviews with people throughout the United States, the combination a delightful mixture I couldn’t help but warm to.
I do admit a lot of it evaporates rather quickly, and there was a time or two I could have done with less Cera and Yi and had more of the young performer engaging with her subjects. The pair’s love story doesn’t add as much as I think the filmmakers want it to, and the way it ultimately culminates wasn’t near as satisfying as I expected it to be.
There are plenty of great little touches all over the place, however, and I loved Yi’s short animated interludes that interrupt the narrative every now and then (the final one absolute perfection). More than any of that I really adored the interviews peppered throughout, each one playing like one of those When Harry Met Sally… “real couple” segments showcasing even more heart, soul and emotional nuance.
I’ve seen Paper Heart twice and it only got better that second viewing. I enjoyed it immensely, the movie making me feel wonderful. Yi proves to be an engaging and unusual talent, her and Cera sparring off one another with deadpan euphoria that made me laugh out loud. But it is the real people and their honest stories that give this mockumentary its heart and soul, and thanks to them I think a third journey to the theater to see it again might potentially be right around the corner.
Film Rating: êêê (out of 4)
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