Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Paper Heart Blu-ray Movie Review

Don't tell my heart, my achy paper heart...

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 19, 2009

Have you ever been in love?

The universal search for love -- and all that implies -- is the subject of a "Mockumentary," or fictional Documentary, from the creative tandem of Writer/Director Nicholas Jasenovec and Writer/Actress Charlyne Yi. Though Yi appears in front of the camera herself, Actor Jake M. Johnson stands in for Director Jasenovec in scenes in which his "character" appears. Confused? Don't be. Paper Heart makes sense, and it does such an excellent job of selling Johnson as the director that most viewers won't even realize they've been duped. Nevertheless, being "duped" is what Paper Heart is all about; though a work of fiction, the film attempts to sell itself as a true Documentary that gives the necessary leeway and financial wherewithal for Yi to set out across the country and around the world to answer that one question that she simply cannot grasp. With the help of real people who willingly inject their two cents through a series of honest and sometimes touching stories of loves won, sustained, and lost, Paper Heart takes a good idea and cobbles together a cute little film that aims to entertain its audience through charming characters and a unique little trek through the hearts of everyday people.

Is this true love?

Charlyne Yi isn't looking for love, but rather she's looking for what love really is. Her idea of love was formed by movies and fairy tales, but her sojourn into adulthood has taught her that such too-good-to-be-true notions are false, unrealistic, and unattainable. With the assistance of friend and aspiring Director Nicholas Jasenovec, Charlyne heads out from sea to shining sea to try and find an answer from a broad array of individuals, each with a unique perspective on love. She speaks with a divorcé, science professors, wedding chapel hosts, bikers, high school sweethearts, a romance novelist, musicians, a man in a long-distance relationship, a couple whose marriage has withstood the test of time, and many others. Partway through her journey, Charlyne meets Actor Michael Cera (himself, Year One), and a tepid friendship slowly builds towards something more. With the camera gazing into every intimate moment and Charlyne being bombarded with advice about what love is and is not, can she foster a relationship with a movie star and learn the true meaning of love?

Paper Heart is a film of strengths and weaknesses, each countering the other and resulting in a somewhat uneven picture that's neither all it could have been nor a rampant disappointment. The film's greatest asset is its ability to often fool the audience into believing that everything that plays out in front of the camera is real. The aforementioned seamless switch between behind-the-camera Director Nicholas Jasenovec and in-front-of-the-camera Director Jake M. Johnson makes for the film's most seamless performance. Charlyne Yi brings an infectious innocence to her performance that, at times, seems to try and capture the same soft-spoken and slightly off-kilter style that co-star Michael Cera employs both here and in all of his pictures. Her effort comes off as genuine and mostly original, even if she does on several occasions border on the stiff and excessively shy, in a few shots even looking like she doesn't want to be on-camera, not counting those more intimate moments with co-star Cera where the camera is understandably not welcome yet required as part of the plot. At several points both Yi and Cera seem to be working too hard to act like they're not acting, and the result is two slightly jumbled performances that occasionally yet unintentionally sacrifice some of the movie's inherent charm.

Nevertheless, Paper Heart more often than not works thanks not to its acting or structure but from secondary players that share their thoughts on love, and the best stories are intercut with crude puppet work that aids in lending to the stories visual pizzazz while breaking up the monotony of static on-camera interviews. Yi hears from a divorcé who survived a deadly Arctic accident when an image of his ex-wife spurred him on to continue the struggle for survival; she hears from scientists that try and explain the body's reaction to the stimuli brought about by feelings of love and pleasure; she contemplates the difference between true love and a crush; and she attempts to absorb most of it in the context of her burgeoning relationship with Cera. Though that relationship serves as the film's focal point, the movie never loses touch of its true purpose, even in the midst of the Cera-Yi relationship where both the crew and the actors struggle with the need to capture Yi's shifting emotions and developing romantic interest in Cera while at the same time taking into consideration the couple's need for privacy to truly allow the relationship to bloom. It's a solid premise all around but it can't escape falling into several sluggish sequences in the midst of the aforementioned charming but slightly forced performances and a few dubious and contrived moments that sacrifice a sense of reality in favor of dramatic effect.

Paper Heart Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Paper Heart's Blu-ray release isn't exactly the sort that will become the go-to demonstration-quality disc to dazzle friends and newcomers to Blu-ray, but considering the film's roots as a pseudo-Docuemntary and shot in HD video, the results are acceptably good. This is something of a raw film that doesn't set out to capture each image in just the right lighting conditions or field-of-view, and the result is an uneven picture quality that never dazzles and more often than not takes on a rough and visually uninteresting appearance. Colors are not particularly well rendered; Michael Cera's red sweatshirt dominates each frame and often appears as an undefined glob of bright red rather than a more natural and well-delineated shade. Fine detail is adequate, but the consistently flat appearance keeps things like tree trunks, leaves, clothing, and even faces from taking on a more natural, deep, and textured appearance. Though the image is never crisp and perfectly sharp, it only goes distractingly soft in a few places. Blacks are sometimes hindered by blatant blocking, and banding creeps into the frame in several scenes. Paper Heart's Blu-ray release won't wow longtime high definition viewers, but this transfer seems generally faithful to the source.

Paper Heart Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Much like its video transfer, Paper Heart's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack isn't inherently stunning, but it gets the job done and even sneaks in a few nice audible perks along the way. The opening musical piece enjoys strong clarity and a slight back channel presence, though the surround channels aren't always employed when the track could use a dollop of atmospheric support. Gentle rain and distant rolling thunder as heard in chapter 13 make for a wonderfully detailed and solidly immersive sequence, though other scattered segments -- a diner setting for a date between Michael and Charlyne, for instance -- feature the general din of varied locations but only across the front. Bass is generally a non-factor, though a rumbling motorcycle and, later, an explosion (as odd as that may sound in a movie like this) both deliver a pleasant but not memorable low end kick that adds a bit of spice to what is otherwise a routine soundtrack. Supported by strong dialogue reproduction, Paper Heart won't blow out speakers or send the pets scrambling for cover, but it's just fine within the confines of the movie it supports.

Paper Heart Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Paper Heart arrives on Blu-ray with a handful of extras. First up are two featurettes. 'Paper Heart' Uncut (1080p, 7:27) features Actress Charlyne Yi struggling through some of her lines and some additional outtakes from the making of the movie. The Making of 'Paper Heart' (1080i, 10:44) takes viewers behind-the-scenes of the challenge of making a fictional Documentary. Next up is Live Musical Performances by Charlyne Yi (1080p, 6:27), a piece that features the actress singing and playing various instruments. 'Heaven' Music Video by Charlyne Yi & Michael Cera (1080p, 1:42) shows the stars performing a short musical number together. Love Interviews with the Comedians (1080i, 26:00) features Paul Rust, Jason Ritter, Bill Hader, Bobcat Goldthwait, David Krumholtz, Demetri Martin, Paul Scheer, and Rob Huebel sharing their thoughts on love with Charlyne Yi. Rounding out this collection of extras are 17 deleted scenes (1080p, 31:05), the Paper Heart theatrical trailer (1080p, 2:02), and additional 1080p trailers for Law Abiding Citizen, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Pandorum, Capitalism: A Love Story, and Party Town. Disc two of this set contains a Windows-only digital copy of Paper Heart.

Paper Heart Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A cute, innocent, and original piece of filmmaking, Paper Heart is a nice if not slightly flawed diversion from the tidal wave of repetitive and unimaginative filmmaking that more often than not dominates the box office. Though it enjoyed only a limited release and, in all honesty, is the sort of film that general audiences probably wouldn't fall in love with anyway, Paper Heart is worth checking out for its unique twist on pseudo-Documentary filmmaking, even in spite of a few problems that really keep it from being one of the better of its kind. The film's Documentary approach and finite resources don't translate to a pristine high definition transfer, but this Starz Blu-ray release delivers acceptably good-in-context picture and sound quality in addition to a few extras. Paper Heart is worth watching, but newcomers will be best served by a rental to gauge interest for a potential future purchase.