“Is it because you’re not loveable?”
- Demetri
Paper Heart is a movie that you’ll probably love or not care for at all, and I suspect it has a lot to do with the lead, Charlyne Yi. You’ll either find her awkwardness and nervous laughter cute and sweet or you’ll find it annoying and distracting. I think that how you feel about her will determine how you feel about the movie. Almost as if acknowledging this, the very first scene is Charlyne on the streets of Vegas asking passersby if they’ve ever been in love. She’s largely ignored until she’s not. “Is love a good thing?” she asks before breaking into laughter. This gambit serves as a brief litmus test to introduce Charlyne to audiences. The brief scene won me over.
Charlyne is looking for love. With that simple goal she sets out across the country talking to people of all walks of life about what they think about love. As you can guess we meet a wide array of folks, from playground kids to bikers to scientists. Along the way she meets Michael Cera (Superbad, Scott Pilgrim vs the World). If there were ever two more awkward leads on film, I’ve yet to see it. Again, you’ll either love the chemistry between them or not care at all.
“I’ve never been in love so I don’t know if I’m capable of it,” Charlyne says early in the film. She does this quite often: saying something, that coming from anyone else would be sad and depressing, but not allowing us to overly pity her (even when she has a bit of an emotional breakdown). Maybe it’s the tone of her voice or her inquisitive expressions where I swear you can see her thinking. Or maybe she’s just really good at masking emotions (aren’t we all?) but we stick with her and reach a satisfying ending together.
It’s dope.
I watched this a few months ago and had mixed feelings. The film does an excellent job of showcasing a real everyday emotional struggle of love, through Yi's character, but I felt there was a lack of a satisfying payoff in the end. Maybe this was intentional, but it read as being lazy, in my opinion. Cera is what you expect from Cera. It's tough to see whether he's a master of this archetype or he's just playing himself in every role. A cute and unique romantic comedy nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteYeah the ending didn't blow me away either, but I was okay with it. And I think Cera is just being himself in every role. LOL
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