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Searching for Love
Combining elements of reality and fantasy, Paper Heart goes on the hunt
Michael Cera and Charlyne Yi in Paper Heart
When young actress/comedian Charlyne Yi and director Nike Jasenovec set out to make a film about love, they also set out cross-country giving Yi, who has a resume of television work, a microphone as she interviews people from all backgrounds and all over the country on the subject of love. Yi, admitting that she does not understand nor will she ever have such strong affections, receives various thoughts and answers from different strangers. Different comedic actors, like Seth Rogen of Knocked Up fame, weigh in on the weighty issue as well. Actor Michael Cera plays the most important interview role as it is his introduction into the film that changes it from a documentary to a narrative.
When Cera takes an interest in Yi their connection moves to the forefront of the film. Playful and humorous interactions are as funny as they are heart warming. Cera’s mastered sense of humor and comedic timing is as dorky as it is endearing as we have seen before in Juno.
Paper Heart started out as a straight forward documentary about Yi’s misunderstanding of love. However, the filmmakers will be the first to tell you that once the idea of adding a romantic element between her and Cera came about the documentary elements then started blending with fiction. As a filmgoer knowing the romance between the two is fake for the purpose of the film doesn’t
necessarily take away from the film. Instead it adds to the excitement of a new type of film. Part doc, part fairy tale, and part comedy.
Drawing on their own “six degrees of seperation” almost everyone that appears in the film has either worked with each other on a previous project: Yi’s turn as a stoner opposite Rogen in Knocked Up, Rogen and Cera’s work together in Superbad, and Cera also has a movie coming out with Jack Black who also appears in Heart. These past working relationships only add to the humor and camaraderie of this unique endeavor.
After Yi’s and Jasenovec’s writing efforts won them a screenwriting award at the last Sundance Film Festival, Paper Heart opens in New York and L.A. on August 7 and goes wider the following week.