Paper Heart

Overview

Let’s take a minute to talk about love. As one of the most powerful yet overused four-letter words in the English language, next to “fuck” and “cake”, love at times feels dangerously close to overexposure.

Like many before her, Charlyne Yi wanted to uncover the truth behind the word. In Paper Heart, she travels across America with camera crew in tow, speaking with couples, singles, children and the elderly in an attempt to understand love. Along the way, she befriends actor Michael Cera and a romance blossoms.

What saves the film from triteness is that Paper Heart is actually following a script. In a clever twist on what we’ve come to expect from indie documentaries, Yi and Cera play themselves in a film about their fictional romance, while Nicholas Jasenovec, the film’s actual director, is played by actor Jake M. Johnson.

Occasionally Yi and Cera’s awkwardness grates, and the ending is a little haphazard, but the film doesn’t pretend to draw any grand conclusions or teach any profound lessons about love. Paper Heart’s message seems to be that figuring everything out, in love and in this film, can kill the magic. Instead, just enjoy the ride.https://youtube.com/watch?v=xkdrdSCBZmk