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Paper Heart (2009)

tomatometer

58

Average Rating: 5.7/10
Reviews Counted: 107
Fresh: 62 | Rotten: 45

Equal parts charming and refreshing, Paper Heart is a quirky mockumentary led by the endearing Charlyne Yi.

54

Average Rating: 5.7/10
Critic Reviews: 24
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 11

Equal parts charming and refreshing, Paper Heart is a quirky mockumentary led by the endearing Charlyne Yi.

audience

45

liked it
Average Rating: 3/5
User Ratings: 43,369

My Rating

Movie Info

Real-life sweethearts Michael Cera and Charlyne Yi star in a fictionalized version of their romance in this indie semi-documentary comedy, written by Yi. Playing themselves, Yi and Cera embark on a scripted version of their own story. In the movie, Yi has agreed to be the subject of a documentary about her quest to discover if love really exists, since she's never experienced it. As part of her participation in the project, she has a film crew follow her around throughout every new development

PG-13, 1 hr. 28 min.

Comedy

Nicholas Jasenovec, Charlyne Yi

Dec 1, 2009

$1.1M

Overture Films

Cast

All Critics (110) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (64) | Rotten (46) | DVD (8)

[An] unbearably twee mockumentary about the meaning of love.

August 20, 2009 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Paper Heart gets by on easygoing charm, rather like Yi herself, whose low-fi comedy is built upon us rooting for her, perhaps hoping that surely there's more magnetism to her than this.

August 19, 2009 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | Comment
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's easy to see how this quirky, offbeat approach could seem refreshing within the rarefied, hermetic atmosphere of a festival. Elsewhere, however, it comes across as amateurish and considerably less charming.

August 11, 2009 Full Review Source: ReelViews | Comment
ReelViews
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It felt completely inauthentic.

August 10, 2009 Full Review Source: At the Movies | Comment
At the Movies
Top Critic IconTop Critic

There's a lot to love here.

August 10, 2009 Full Review Source: At the Movies | Comment
At the Movies
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This breach with the audience does matter, for it is one thing to seduce your viewers and quite another to trick them. Love is all about trust, after all.

August 7, 2009 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | Comment
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Twee mockumentary bestills love-seeking hipster hearts.

August 15, 2011 Full Review Source: Film Journal International | Comment
Film Journal International

Paper Heart doesn't unearth the meaning of 'love' (spoiler alert?) but it at least shows us how real human beings deal with all those confusing emotions that might equal something close to it.

October 27, 2010 Full Review Source: Quickflix | Comment

Ultimately, one doubts that even the parts that seemed real are real, and the entire house-of-cards comes tumbling down.

August 9, 2010 Full Review Source: sbs.com.au | Comment
sbs.com.au

Determining the exact level of artifice never stops being distracting, and the emotional climax is far from earned.

June 9, 2010 Full Review Source: Flicks.co.nz | Comment
Flicks.co.nz

There are so many things about the film that could have been annoying (...) but the story is so refreshing and honest that it would be almost impossible to find anything annoying here.

April 15, 2010 Full Review Source: Fan The Fire | Comment
Fan The Fire

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.

December 25, 2009 Full Review Source: Examiner.com | Comment
Examiner.com

Miraculously effective if kooky cross-country dissertations on the anatomy of love, including Vegas matrimony; biker bar romance deconstructed as 'thirty minutes in the back seat,' and unrequited animal attraction at a local zoo.

November 25, 2009 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | Comment
NewsBlaze

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.

November 13, 2009 Full Review Source: Sunday Times (UK) | Comment
Sunday Times (UK)

An extremely irritating, narcissistic picture.

November 13, 2009 Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | Comments (3)
Observer [UK]

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.

November 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

Whimsical, solipsistic and self-indulgent, Paper Heart represents everything that is wrong with American independent cinema.

November 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Times [UK] | Comment
Times [UK]

A world-beatingly annoying and pointless "docu-romcom".

November 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | Comment
Guardian [UK]

The movie's winsome artificiality may drive you bananas.

November 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | Comment
Daily Telegraph

Like Yi herself, the film may seem at times rather naïve in its outlook, but it's also honest and entertaining.

November 6, 2009 Comment
Little White Lies

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.

November 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Digital Spy | Comment
Digital Spy

Yi is a unique tour guide, her deadpan demeanour, embarrassed giggle and horn-rimmed specs generating non-starry appeal.

November 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Total Film | Comment
Total Film

An over-arching smugness blights this comic investigation into true love.

November 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Radio Times | Comment
Radio Times

Some viewers have found this film adorable but its quirky cuteness was lost on me.

November 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Daily Express | Comment
Daily Express
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Paper Heart

"A story about love that's taking on a life of it's own."Paper Heart is an odd and extremely off beat fake documentary. What's more odd then the film is the fact that I actually liked it. Not a lot, but I did enjoy it for the most part. On another note, I don't think I could come up with a couple that is more perfect

July 28, 2011
blkbomb
Melvin White

Super Reviewer

Oh my god, I'm usually not that shallow, but Charlyne Yi is so unattractive and awkward I literally could not watch for any longer. Girlfriend best not act ever again. Also this movie: way way too annoying and self-aware, even for hipsters.

May 29, 2011
jennifxu

Super Reviewer

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