Paper Heart (2009)

Starring:

Charlyne Yi

Michael Cera

Love. Is it a theme, a feeling, a state of mind, or just massive amounts of seratonin attacking your brain? Whatever it may be, there is no one right answer, just an abundance of individual beliefs. Personally, I am a hopeless romantic that has been influenced with too many pop songs (British especially), romantic movies and idealistic dreams of love that knocks me on my ass with one glance from "the one". Forgive me for being cliche, but love is in the eye of the beholder, as you will find out in this pseudodocudrama.

In Paper Heart, Charlene Yi doesn't believe in love or the notion she can feel love. As a result, she embarks on an international journey to make a documentary about love and hear what love is from the masses and surprises herself in the process. She encounters an array of stories from the people she encounters during her journey Along the way, Michael Cera (playing himself) peaks her interest and she seemingly begrudgingly enters into the fray of a relationship with all of its joys and pitfalls.

The premise draws you in, but the entire movie is one big indie stereotype. Charlyne Yi is very endearing with her awkward nature and angst as the quentessential indie girl. She has all of the qualities of the cute, hipster: She was always wearing a hoodie or cardigan, the horn rimmed glasses, she played guitar and had an original laugh that became very unoriginaly because it was in every scene. Furthermore, how the movie was shot was also inundated with indie facets; it never changed. There was whimsical background instrumentals to compliment the expansive landscape shots, sun hazed faces while driving, scenes with old camera footage a la "The Wonder Years", and simple fonts used in the names of locations. Oh yeah, there is also some sweet paper mache diaramas.

The story starts out sweet, but it quickly turns into an almost farce about love and the cynical nature of Generation Y.

On a brighter note, the real star of this underachieving film was the real opinions and stories of love from the people that she encounters. From couples married for 50 years, to high school newlyweds, biker friends and divorcees, the heart behind these stories is tangible and they definitely took the spotlight away from Yi. These tales of love in all fashions highlighted the fact that the idea of love is multi-faceted and malleable; it cannot pigeonheld into one idealistic form.

Paper Heart is certainly an off-beat documovie that has its moments, but in all of the its indie glory, it lacks the true heart to wholeheartedly captivate an audience who is yearning for something real in this land of cinematic remakes and recycled ideas.