PAPER HEART

We may not walk away with definitive answers, but we do walk away with a ray of hope.

In Paper Heart, comedienne Charlyne Yi sets out to find love.  No, she's not just looking for a guy or someone to keep the couch warm, Yi wants to dissect love, figure out what it really means, how it happens, and what other people think about it.  Maybe then she can figure out why it's never happened for her.  Maybe somewhere along the way it actually will happen for her.

Yi's quest for answers includes interviews with comedians, friends, strangers, and experts.  She heads to Texas to chat with university professors about the chemical nature of love, to Vegas to chat with the ministers of quickie weddings, and to the Los Angeles Zoo for a glimpse at how animals express love.  Everywhere she goes people seem endeared and puzzled by the girl with the paper heart.  Yi may be a skeptic through and through, but she’s so sweet and self-deprecating that it’s hard to believe she’d be incapable of finding love.  Indeed it’s hard not to like a girl who looks this bewildered trying on a wedding dress, stumped as to how such a thing will ever relate to her.

The plot thickens, however, when Yi meets Michael Cera.  Not only does he know who she is, he’d be quite interested in getting to know her better.  Still suspicious, Yi remains tentative, but Cera, (in his own endearing, tentative way) slowly wins her over, giving Yi a glimpse at how a relationship, and love itself, might begin.

The film is a quirky, engaging look at a subject we can all relate to, and the blossoming relationship between Yi and Cera serves as a perfect subplot.  Who among us hasn’t been baffled by love, why it works, and why it eludes us?  We may not walk away with definitive answers, but we do walk away with a ray of hope.

DVD NOTES

DVD extras include the featurettes "Paper Heart Uncut" and "The Making of Paper Heart".  Other bonus features include musical performances by Charlyne Yi, the "Heaven" music video by Charlyne Yi and Michael Cera, love interviews with comedians (including Bobcat Goldthwaite, Jason Ritter, and Bill Hader), and deleted scenes.