5.4 | / 10 |
Users | 1.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
In 'Paper Heart', Yi does not believe in love. Or so she says. At the very least, she doesn’t believe in fairy-tale love or the Hollywood mythology of love, and her own experiences have turned her into a modern-day skeptic. 'Paper Heart' follows Yi as she embarks on a quest across the U.S. to make a documentary about the one subject she doesn’t fully understand: Love. Combining elements of documentary and traditional storytelling, reality and fantasy, Paper Heart brings a fresh perspective to the modern romance and redefines the classic love story.
Starring: Charlyne Yi, Michael Cera, Jake Johnson, Paul Rust, Martin StarrComedy | 100% |
Romance | 60% |
Drama | 41% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Digital copy (on disc)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
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?
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.
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 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.
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.
Director's Cut | Special Edition
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