I heard an interview on NPR earlier in the week with two of the three leads of Paper Heart, Charlyne Yi and Jake Johnson, which included several clips from the movie and commentary from these two on what the interviews meant to them and, well, let me explain what's going on... Paper Heart is a faux documentary in which Charlyne is searching for love. Both what love is and maybe to find love herself or at least discover whether she is capable of love. The scenes between Charlyne, Jake (as Nick) and Michael Cera are all scripted. Seriously. These real actors are playing characters similar to themselves, but still not themselves. Everything else, all of the interviews with celebrities and "real" people across America are completely real.This knowledge maybe sort of damaged it for me a little, because, while the interviews are nice, it's the developing relationship between Charlyne and Michael that is really compelling, and the whole way through I kept reminding myself it was all staged. And now some of you are probably wondering why I'm even bothering to disclose this if it's going to ruin the impact. Well, you would have worked it out. The credits basically open with writing credits, so it's far from a secret that these segments are staged.
Oddly, the most satisfying segments of the film come in the form of paper puppet recreations, which are, I believe, created and controlled by Charlyne Yi. These are used to recreate a few of the stories told by some of the people being interviewed and capture this beautiful space between crude and artistic and somehow adorable. In fact, the best sequence of the entire film is the closing puppet play filled with high action and a great soundtrack and some really funny writing. I'd have no problem recommending people watch it just for that final scene.
