Rent Paper Heart (2009)

Uninspiring, artificial, clichéd and ultimately pointless. - Paper Heart review by CP Customer

Paper Heart is a fake documentary in which Charlyne Yi (playing herself) is making a film with Nicholas Jasenovec (played by an actor) asking others about the meaning of love, while she admits herself to never being in love. While on her fake journey across America interviewing minor celebrities and members of the public, (most of which are actors), about their stories and views on love she meets the actor Michael Cera. The pair embark on a series of dates which are filmed as part of Charlyne's documentary, though as their relationship develops the pair become tired of their time together being constantly filmed by director Nicholas. Despite the fact the idea behind the story is a complete rip off of the low budget indie 'Four Eyed Monsters', 'Paper Heart' as a film just doesn't work. While mockumentaries can often be quite good it helps if they actually have the feel of a real documentary, 'Paper Heart' just looks like a regular film, in which the cast is playing themselves in a documentary. There is no shakey camera work, no unintentional glances at the camera and no awkward dialogue and the whole film is far too polished to pass itself off as a low budget documentary made by three people. The relationship between Charlyne and Michael is completely unbelievable, despite the pair both being in their twenties and Cera, (who's supposed to be playing himself), being an accomplished Hollywood actor the pair act like a two 14 year olds in their first relationship. Overall, the whole film feels artificial, staged and hollow and even the most die hard Michael Cera fans will struggle to find any enjoyment from this. The only reason this gets more than one star is that the 'Modly Peaches' style song sung by Charlyne during the film was quite good and the scene where you pretty much see Michael Cera's heart breaking on camera was nicely done, apart from that it's one to miss.