Paper Heart is the half-real, half-scripted story of Charlyne Yi’s quest to discover what love is and if it can exist for her. Skeptical about happily-ever-afters, she goes out to ask every day people, couples young and old, gay and straight – even scientists and Las Vegas chapel ministers! – to see what they have to say about the subject. Amusing, to say the least.My fave parts were the touching stories people shared of their experiences and Yi’s awesome puppets playing them out in the background. Although Yi and Michael Cera did in fact have a relationship in the past (not sure if they still do), seeing that scripted portion develop over the course of the movie still seemed so sincere. Yi’s character (as semi-herself) doesn’t verbalize many of her feelings, but she doesn’t need to. You can decipher a lot from her interactions with Cera and by the expressions on her face. She’s too cute :)
It’s a fairly simple tale (lasting 88 minutes) that doesn’t drag on longer than it should, which is good for my ADD-ish tendencies, but I was entertained from beginning to end. Yi is so giggly and adorable, I was pulling for her happiness even though I’d only just met her. (I didn’t exactly pay much attention to her stoned character in Knocked Up.)
And Cera was great playing the role he seems to have perfected: the awkwardly sweet, quirky guy who’s too funny for words. I don’t think I can imagine him in any other role, but thankfully I haven’t had enough of him yet.
Paper Heart is genuinely sweet and provokes some thought on true love and the different forms it can take. Maybe I enjoyed it so much because Yi’s skeptical view struck a chord with me, but it’s also because I appreciated the lack of unnecessary sap and her refusal to apologize or force feelings she doesn’t possess – yet.
Paper Heart: 3/5 Toasties
Image: empiremovies.com