'Paper Heart' review

Michael Cera and Charlyne Yi (Credit: Justina Mintz/Overture)

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Charlyne Yi on 'Paper Heart'

Fact, fiction or something else?

Best of Sundance 2009

Check out the buzzworthiest films of the biggest U.S. fest

Comedienne Charlyne Yi (best known as the goofy stoner chick in “Knocked Up”) doesn’t believe she has what it takes to fall in love, so she decides to make a documentary on the subject with her filmmaker friend Nicholas Jasenovec (who really is the director of this movie, but is played on screen by actor Jake Johnson). Things get complicated when Yi meets actor Michael Cera at a party, and strikes up a friendship that threatens to blossom into something more…if only they can get away from the cameras documenting their every move.

The buzz: When “Paper Heart” premiered at this year’s Sundance film festival it won the screenwriting prize and was generally well received as an amusingly fictionalized account of Yi and Cera’s real life relationship (at least by those who didn’t immediately dismiss it as hipster preciousness). Yi now insists that the pair never dated, while gossip sites are reporting that they broke up, but does that help or hurt the movie’s overall impact?

The verdict: Yi and Cera have such great unexpected chemistry that you’ll wish it’s real, even if it isn’t. But their story is only half the film. “Paper Heart” relies just as heavily on Yi’s interviews with committed couples about their experiences in love. It’s like the anti-“Borat,” getting average citizens to spill their guts to the camera for appreciation instead of ridicule (well, except for that Las Vegas Elvis impersonator). For all we know, their stories are also a put-on. No matter, it’s the thought that counts. “Paper Heart” takes an optimistic, undeniably sweet approach to issues of the heart, and doesn’t lose its head in the process. The film gently dissects people’s romantic expectations—especially in Yi’s interview with a romance novelist and encounter with a psychic—while simultaneously feeding our most heart-tugging desires. When Johnson (as Jasenovec) tells Cera the movie is meant to be “funny, romantic and quirky,” Cera quips, “Just what American needs.” He means it sarcastically, sorta. But “Paper Heart” earns that description, genuinely.

Did you know? In preparation for working together on the movie, Yi, Johnson and Jasenovec staged a 30-minute theatrical production of “E.T.” Jasenovec directed, Johnson played Elliott and Yi played E.T.

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