Paper Heart ultimately charming, yet flimsy

By Brian Reinhart     8/20/09 7:00pm

In the first scene of the new mockumentary Paper Heart, Michael Cera (Juno), who plays himself, asks the director if the movie is "a quirky comedy, a romantic comedy." The director answers that it is. "Perfect," Cera says. "That's just what America needs."Of course, Paper Heart is not a necessary movie, or even an important one. But it is charming, funny and heartfelt nonetheless, cheerfully embracing its own insignificance and daring to break away from the clichés and celebrate young love between misfits.

The premise of this movie is that comedian Charlyne Yi (Knocked Up) is filming a documentary about love and, during the process, falls in love herself. She begins the "documentary" a skeptic, claiming that she will never know what love feels like. Yi asks a Texas Tech professor if she could have been born unable to feel love, and is told by a friend, fellow comic Demetri Martin (Analyze That), that she probably is just not lovable.

The fake documentary gives Paper Heart a nearly-plausible disguise. Its director, Nick (Jake M. Johnson, Redbelt), is occasionally a little too eager to remind us that the movie is supposedly real, and when cameras follow cameramen around we become aware that the whole thing is staged. Nonetheless, the film is able to carry an earnest, real tone throughout.

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Partly this is because the people Yi interviews about love are honest and unscripted. Indeed, they create most of the best moments in the movie. Several couples offer the touching stories of their first meeting, from high school sweethearts who flirted with each other at age 14 and have been married for 50 years to a gay couple whose first date almost ended in disaster. On a playground in Atlanta, children weigh in with opinions both charming and absurd. One girl says the perfect date would be "taking him to Applebee's and getting him the hot wings." A boy disagrees, advising Yi to "go to the French Riviera and eat only seafood!"

Between these scenes are those tracing the budding romance between Yi and Cera, after the two meet at a party early on in the movie. Cera's arrival is sudden, maybe too sudden, but the couple's courtship is so awkward, and so charming, that we cannot help but love them together. Moreover, it is clear that Cera has finally met his match in Yi: an actress at least as endearingly awkward as he is.

After Cera enters, the movie switches back and forth between the original documentary-style feature and the love story between the two main characters. For the most part the movie sticks together successfully, although at one point Charlyne writes Michael a love song so bad that listening hurts.

Of course, a viewer thinking too hard might be able to poke holes through just about every part of this plot. For instance, a moment when Charlyne concedes that "Michael is more successful" than she is reminds us that we're actually watching two celebrities trying their hardest to be normal people. Yi is a regular in Seth Rogen movies (Rogen has a cameo here), and Cera is a sort of teen movie superstar. The movie tries to have it both ways, showing Yi delivering bizarre jokes at a comedy club while still trying to deny that its central characters are famous.

But why analyze Paper Heart so much? This is not intellectual fare, nor does it claim to be. And if the ending feels tacked-on, or if the puppet shows which illustrate the story at important moments seem gratuitous or silly, what does it really matter in the end? Paper Heart is a movie that just wants to have fun. It does. It's funny, smart and has the occasional very clever surprise. Paper Heart is never great, but it is enjoyable.

To view the trailer and more, visit the movie webstite at www.paperheart-movie.com.

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