Paper Heart
Paper heart is altogether a different kind of film. Shot in a documentary style, it has actually transformed into a mockumetary of abstract feelings. Don’t expect it to be a romantic comedy; instead Paper Heart is a comedy with regards to romance. The film has many elements of subtle sensitivities that will often leave you thoughtful. Paper heart is a movie within a movie.
The film opens with an Asian girl Charlyne Yi and her thoughts that may or may not be real. She has a weird feeling and she believes that she can never experience romantic love and this makes her upset as she feels that in this way she will miss out on the most important aspect of human relation. She could not just sit back contemplating and brooding over her abstract thoughts. She felt the urgency within to address this issue.
The story of the film is set rolling as Charlyne decides to go on a cross-country expedition with film crew to shoot and interview people from different segment of life. She interviews husbands and wives, doctors and psychologists and friends and relatives to better understand human emotion. She felt that she can never know herself the feeling of love so she interviewed these people to understand through the narration of their incidents. She decides to shoot a film where human emotion and its origin is the center stage. The chemistry of love is the subject matter.
The story takes a U turn when Charlyne in her search of understanding human emotion tumbles upon Michael Cara and eventually she herself becomes the subject of her study. The movie continues to explore the complex nature of human emotion in many ways. If it is not the documentary real life narrative experiences, it is Cera and Charlyne’s incidental interactions- whatever it is, the story keeps rolling in its most charming yet queer manner with seamless blend of feelings.
Love has been explored in myriad ways through Charlyne’s lens and eventually she found herself in the spotlight of falling in love. But the problem is that Charlyne is a kind of girl who does not believe in love but she was in the process of liking Michael. Paper Heart tried to define and make people understand love in its own unique way. There are shots where you will wipe your tears and smile out besides feeling the senses of joy and sorrow together. The film that was shot by Charlyne eventually turns out to be quite self illuminating and real.
Directed by Nicholos Jasenovec Paper Heart is a drama of lovers with blend of all kinds of feelings from being sad to being funny. The characters needed to be more appropriately chosen as it lacked the onscreen chemistry of romanticism. Michael Cera needed to be more candid and carefree in his thoughts and attitude. My belief is that the lead lady character could have been different for better portrayal of emotion as she has been often found stumbling with her dialogues.
| Film | Paper Heart |
|---|---|
| Cast | Charlyne Yi as Charlyne Yi, Michael Cera as Michael Cera, Jake M. Johnson as Nicholas Jasenovec, Sarah Baker, Matthew Bass, Matthew Craig, Don Emerson, Sally Emerson |
| Director | Nicholas Jasenovec |
| Writer | Charlyne Yi |
| Producers | Sandra Murillo , Elise Salomon |
| Rating | 3/5 |
Posted on Saturday, August 15th, 2009 at 10:12 pm