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Reviews Counted:95
Fresh:57
Rotten:38
Average Rating:5.8/10
Consensus: Equal parts charming and refreshing, Paper Heart is a quirky mockumentary led by the endearing Charlyne Yi.
Theatrical Release:Aug 7, 2009 Limited
Box Office: $1,149,350
Synopsis: Charlyne Yi does not believe in love. Or so she says. Well, at the very least, she doesn’t believe in fairy-tale love or the Hollywood mythology of love, and her own experiences have turned her... [More]
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Yi's worldview is best represented by a song she writes for Cera, a Weezer-esque bit of nerd rock called You Smell Like Christmas. At first the song is irritating, but it sticks in your head and just like Paper Heart, the song is annoyingly hummable.
It’s not the worst cutesy, lo-fi love story you’ll ever see, but it’s shown up by all those genuine true-life tales. Alongside them, its falseness is too glaring.
An extremely irritating, narcissistic picture.
The segments featuring real people are genuinely affecting, but the realisation that everything else is probably being acted – that truth may be polluted by hoax – gives this otherwise lightweight film a sly, subversive edge.
Whimsical, solipsistic and self-indulgent, Paper Heart represents everything that is wrong with American independent cinema.
A world-beatingly annoying and pointless "docu-romcom".
The movie’s winsome artificiality may drive you bananas.
Like Yi herself, the film may seem at times rather naïve in its outlook, but it’s also honest and entertaining.
Where Paper Heart does shine, however, is in the reflections of the general public and few will fail to be moved by their truly inspiring and heartwarming stories of true love.
Yi is a unique tour guide, her deadpan demeanour, embarrassed giggle and horn-rimmed specs generating non-starry appeal.
An over-arching smugness blights this comic investigation into true love.
Some viewers have found this film adorable but its quirky cuteness was lost on me.
Either you will find this cheaply made American independent docudrama charming or faintly irritating.
The film becomes more bewitching the more it loses direction. Yi stops questioning strangers and starts questioning herself. She also interrogates the ability, or inability, of cinema to follow love into its deepest mazes.
This indie squib wobbles briefly on a tightrope between sincerity and cuteness before plunging headlong to a death-by-whimsy.
A heart-warmer to make a cynic grin.
Yi and Cera are both excellent, though the film is considerably hampered by the lack of any real chemistry between them and their romance fails to convince as a result.
Sort of like a twee version of Curb Your Enthusiasm, it's this blurring of fact and fiction that transforms Paper Heart into a rom-com for the cynical reality-TV age, one that smartly uses documentary elements to provide real heart.
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Top CriticMildly amusing at best, the interviews are accompanied by twee animated segments featuring paper dolls, which should fill any right-thinking person with disgust.
August 07, 2009:
Five Favorite Films with Charlene Yi
Writer and star of documentary/fiction bender "Paper Heart" Charlene Yi stopped by The Rotten Tomatoes Show on Current TV to share her favorite films. More...
August 06, 2009:
Critics Consensus: It's Quiet For G.I. Joe. Too Quiet.
This week at the movies, we got real American heroes (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, starring Dennis Quaid and Sienna Miller); kitchen chronicles (Julie & Julia, starring Meryl... More...
August 06, 2009:
Box Office Guru Preview: Go, Joe!
Some real American heroes look to storm the box office this weekend as Paramount unleashes its latest toy franchise film G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Sony counters with the... More...
July 28, 2009:
Paper Heart Contest Winners Announced!
We want to thank everyone who submitted love poems to our Paper Heart Twitter Contest! Paper Heart's very own Charlyne Yi and director Nick Jasenovec personally read through... More...
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