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Web Exclusive Review: Paper Heart

Alternative Press - Rachel Lux on 8/11/09 @ 10:49 AM - altpress.com

ROMANTIC COMEDY
PAPER HEART (Overture)
STARS > Charlyne Yi, Michael Cera, Jake M. Johnson
DIRECTOR > Nicholas Jasenovec
OPENS > AUG 14
RATING > 3/5

Part romantic comedy, part documentary, Paper Heart is the brainchild of comedienne/actress/musician Charlyne Yi and director Nick Jasenovec, who travel across America collecting real-life love stories while filming a budding romance between Yi and Arrested Development/Superbad star Michael Cera. Thing is, Jasenovec is played by actor Jake M. Johnson, and Yi's relationship with the masterfully awkward Cera isn't real-or rather, the scenes they share in the movie are fictional. But they may or may not be a real-life couple. Confused? We haven't even mentioned the puppets yet. Constructed by Yi and occupying miniature sets constructed by her father, the puppets are used to illustrate and dramatize the tales of her interviewees-a mishmash of gregarious Southerners, silver-haired old-timers, grizzled bikers and Elvis impersonators. Yi also asks her real-life comedy pals (Demetri Martin, Seth Rogen, Martin Starr) about the meaning of love while confiding her own difficulties with the concept.

Paper Heart's mix of fiction and documentary is a format with nearly unlimited comedic potential, as evidenced by Sacha Baron Cohen in both Borat and Brüno. But unlike Cohen, Yi and Jasenovec don't manipulate the combination for satire. Instead, they use it to create what might seem, to a viewer given no background info, like a sweet, earnest, feature-length reality show about relationships. Enhanced by puppets. But the fact that parts of the film aren't real doesn't make the whole any less sweet or earnest. Besides, Cera can seemingly wring laughs out of anything (except maybe Year One), and the puppets are kind of awesome. -J. Bennett

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