The Movie
A pseudo-documentary about the essence, and indeed the dubious existence of love, Paper Heart combines what may or may not be genuine interviews with real people along with loosely scripted scenes of a burgeoning romance. I say "loosely" because there is a lot of small talk (of which I'm not a fan) as comedian, musician and now screenwriter Charlyne Yi portrays a dramatized version of herself, and is "wooed" by talented young performer Michael Cera, also pretending to be natural.
Yi's would-be position in the documentary is that she has never been in love and wonders if she ever could be. She talks to scientists, a romance novelist, a divorce lawyer, the heartbroken and more than one "happily ever after" couple, but ultimately the movie becomes about her fictional relationship with Cera, and the ceiling they hit as the camera crew follows them everywhere, hoping to capture some magic moment. The movie succeeds or fails on the idiosyncratic charms of its young star, and as a fresh new take on modern love in L.A., it's a winner.
The Picture
The movie appears to have been shot on digital video, presented here at a screen-filling aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The image is generally very sharp and clear, albeit with instances of noise on textures and within shadows. Blacks are typically severe, backgrounds are often noticeably compressed, and colors can get a little hinky here and there, but considering the low-budget guerilla style, it looks fine.
The Sound
Efforts have clearly been made to mix details into the surrounds: an engine during the establishing shot of a biker bar, then the noises inside. A car horn, traffic or setting off some fireworks are all positioned deliberately around the soundstage. During a flashback, we're given big booming thunder, and during a fantasy sequence there's a terrific explosion and even bullets whizzing by. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track also offers nice separation in the music.
The Extras
"Paper Heart Uncut" collects seven-and-a-half minutes of bloopers, while "The Making of Paper Heart" (about 11 minutes) gives a bit more insight. "Live Musical Performances by Charlyne Yi" spins four songs, Yi on stage with various accompanists (six-and-a-half minutes), while her "Heaven" music video with Michael Cera is more polished (about two minutes). The "Love Interviews with the Comedians" are mostly tongue-in-cheek, one-on-one with eight different performers, some of whom appear in the movie (25 minutes). Last up are 17 deleted scenes, totaling more than half an hour. All of the extras are presented in high-bitrate MPEG-2.
Disc Two is a DVD-ROM with a Windows Media-compatible Digital Copy of the movie.
Final Thoughts
This stylized love-child of Christopher Guest and Larry David's comedy vibes is a sweet little indie, and fans might want to buy rather than rent, to better savor the amusing extras at their leisure.
Product Details
- Actors: Charlyne Yi, Michael Cera, Jake M. Johnson
- Director: Nicholas Jasenovec
- Audio Format/Languages: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (English)
- Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Number of discs: 2
- Rating: PG-13
- Studio: Anchor Bay
- Release Date: December 1, 2009
- Run Time: 88 minutes
- List Price: $39.98
- Extras:
- "Paper Heart Uncut"
- "The Making of Paper Heart"
- Live Musical Performances by Charlyne Yi
- "Heaven" music video by Charlene Yi & Michael Cera
- Love Interviews with the Comedians:
- Paul Rust
- Jason Ritter
- Bill Hader
- Bobcat Goldthwait
- David Krumholtz
- Demetri Martin
- Paul Scheer
- Rob Huebel
- Deleted Scenes
- Digital Copy
