Paper Heart Review
Hope my film does well
Paper Heart is the quirky indie film most of its ilk want to be. The flick delivers enough quirkiness only to reel itself back in when it feels overloaded, while maintaining its message. It’s aware when enough is enough, and hopes we accept the gimmick it presents. Even with its gimmick, the filmmakers know they have a voice; keep it in check and don’t necessarily spell the whole thing out for the viewer by the end. Rather, let the interviewees be a piece of the pie. At the same time, the film is a ticking time bomb waiting for Sergeant James to defuse. One false step and all the good will the film has built is destroyed in an instant. While it flirts with disaster, Paper Heart remains a cute, endearing, and at times depressing look into what love is.
The aforementioned gimmick refers to using paper puppets to tell the stories as the interviewees narrate their tale of love. For instance, the most heart-breaking entails a man who had a near-death experience whose heart kept beating because he saw a lost love’s face. Told through puppetry, we’re shown this guy’s journey from its start to where he falls into a river, meets some very over-exaggerated fish and ultimately makes his way back to shore. The creative lengths the filmmakers went to to make these sequences work might not have cost much, but in the end they compliment some truly great stories of love. That’s really where the heart (no pun intended) of the film lies. None of the stories are the same and that helps keep the puppetry from becoming repetitive. The filmmakers also wisely choose to tell us the most heartbreaking of the tales first, to get us on their side. They’re also smart enough to introduce us to the people and environments before laying their love stories on us. Suffice it to say, it works.
Ironically, the only story that rocks the boat too much is Charlene Yi’s faux-documentary interaction with Superbad star and real-life boyfriend Michael Cera. That’s not a slam on either, although Cera continues to prove the actor and the person are one in the same. Some of the moments these two share together are cute, one “date” could even be considered clever, but most of the scenes feel too forced. It’s only partially clear that they want us in on the joke as we see the reactions of the filmmakers after some scenes. The structure of it all is what ultimately lets some water into the perfectly fine ship Paper Heart is. The picture dives into standard romcom fare straight out of any “boy meets girl” adventure. The ship won’t sink, and that’s because Yi and Cera turn in some solid work. Sure, they won’t plug up every hole – some reactions feel unnatural and there’s never real tension between them – but like any strong captain(s), they’re determined to keep it afloat.
That leads us to the message of the film, which proclaims love has no definition. Yi sets out to define this enigma, only to realize by the end of it love takes on too many forms and can’t be defined by one, two, or even ten relationships. Yi admits in the beginning she doesn’t believe in it, and wants to find what it is. Does love need to be defined? Can love really be the “perfect” emotion Hallmark cards claim it is? Yi, and the film, realize together what love is by the end of it, and they seem happy with the answer. It makes one wonder, though, is this why some people have a tough time with the concept of love, because it’s not defined by one particular thing?
One’s enjoyment of Paper Heart might boil down to how one feels about Charlene Yi. She’s an awkward yet cute girl who, to this viewer, operates in her own world. We come to know Charlene and even meet her family. Those who find her endearing will accept Paper Heart for what it is: a sweet, cute, and innocent look into the concept of love and what defines it. For what it’s worth, the film ended up being much better than expected and will hopefully find an audience that embraces it as much as the folks involved embraced this idea.
