From the DVD Shelf: Josh Reviews Paper Heart (2009)
Charlyne Yi (who you might recognize from Knocked Up) doesn’t really believe in the concept of falling in love. She’s not sure such a thing as love truly exists — and if it does, she’s not sure it’s something that she’s capable of. So she sets out with her friend, director Nicholas Jasenovec, to film a documentary about love. The two travel across the U.S., interviewing all sorts of everyday people (along with the judge in a divorce court, an Elvis who marries folks in Vegas, Seth Rogen, and a few other not-quite-so-everyday folks) about their thoughts regarding true love. Things get more complicated when, while filming the documentary, Yi meets Michael Cera at a friend’s party, and the two hit it off and begin dating (an awkward process captured on camera by the documentary crew). Do her interviews with people — or her burgeoning relationship with Michael Cera — change Yi’s feelings about love?
If Yi’s happening to fall into a relationship with Michael Cera while at the same time filming a documentary about love seems like a wild coincidence to you, then you’d be right! Because things aren’t quite what they seem. The interviews that Yi conducts are absolutely real. But the Nicholas Jasenovec that we see on-camera isn’t actually the Nicholas Jasenovec who directed this film — it’s an actor, Jake M. Johnson! And while Michael Cera and Charlyne Yi did date, their courtship as we see it was staged for the camera.
What we’re left with is a rather bizarre hybrid film. The movie is constantly bouncing back-and-forth from the real footage (the interview segments, which are like much more in-depth versions of all the couples we see telling their how-they-met stories from When Harry Met Sally) to the staged footage (of Yi and Cera, and of Yi and Johnson/Jasenovec). What’s really intriguing is the way the film doesn’t hesitate to make clear to us that that footage is staged — or, at the very least, manipulated. Almost every time that we might find ourselves drawn in to Yi & Cera’s story, the film draws our attention to the artificiality of those moments. (In one scene, we see Yi and Cera playfully interacting on a beach, and then beginning to walk hand-in-hand down the shore-line. It’s a tender moment… until we see Johnson/Jasenovec run into the frame wondering if perhaps they could do another take. In another scene in Yi’s apartment, we see her first kiss with Cera… and then the camera pulls out to see a camera-man and a sound-guy perched on the next couch, recording the moment.) Even the interview footage is played with, as we often cut away from the people telling their stories to see endearingly low-tech cardboard cut-out recreations of those stories animated by Ms. Yi.
Part of me wishes that Paper Heart had gone fully one-way or the other… either being a real documentary about American perceptions and beliefs about love, and how our attitudes toward relationships have been shaped by our culture, and the stories we tell one another… or a more fully-realized scripted version of the story of this tentative romance between two young people. But I suppose then we’d be left with a much less unique — and probably much less interesting — film.
It’s quite a delight to see such a distinct voice captured on camera, and Charlyne Yi is certainly a unique voice. From her stumbling, halting interview method to her wonderful little animation scenes, Paper Heart is fully imbued with her personality. The degree with which one engages with that personality will, I think, strongly influence whether one engages with this film or not. Personally, I found it charming, if perhaps a little slow. (But the film has a phenomenal ending.)
Paper Heart isn’t a movie I can imagine myself re-watching all that often, but I’m certainly gald to have seen it. I am eager to see what Charlyne Yi does next.