Film review: Paper Heart

Published on Thursday 5 November 2009 17:58

PAPER HEART (15) *** DIRECTED BY: NICHOLAS JASENOVEC STARRING: CHARLYNE YI, MICHAEL CERA, JAKE M JOHNSON

IN DANGER of making Michel Gondry look like Michael Bay, this documentary-cum-mockumentary takes whimsical indie hipster cinema to new levels of preciousness as adorably oddball stand-up Charlyne Yi sets out on a road trip across America to discover what love is. Interviewing real people, from elderly couples, knowing kids and sage-like divorcees, to comedian pals such as Seth Rogen and Demetri Martin, her motivation is her own scepticism: she doesn't believe in love – or, more accurately, she doesn't believe she's capable of falling in love, a confession that elicits genuine pitying glances from many of her interviewees. Along the way, however, she meets Juno star Michael Cera at a party and, little by little, this geek chic pair begin falling for each other, with the latter insinuating himself into Charlyne's documentary, and Charlyne's friend and director Nicholas Jasenovec (played here by Jake M Johnson) forcing increasingly contrived romantic situations on them for the benefit of the narrative. Sort of like a twee version of Curb Your Enthusiasm, it's this blurring of fact and fiction that transforms Paper Heart into a rom-com for the cynical reality-TV age, one that smartly uses documentary elements to provide real heart.