So...
Yesterday, I saw the movie Paper Heart with a friend at the cheapies up the road. No, not like a date. Just a friendly movie viewing. Although, after seeing it, I had wished I was on a date, because the film lent itself perfectly to such an occasion.
Anyhoo, I digress...
I wanted to see this movie for some time because, I, like all gay men my age am hopelessly romantic. Or rather that's what I keep telling myself. Most are actually just looking for cheap and sleazy booty-calls.
I'm the bitter exception.
To be honest, it was a cute and extremely subtle movie based on the major theme of the nature of true love. We follow Charlyne Yi and her motley crew film-production unit, which includes the faux-director Nick Jasenovec played by the annoying yet endearing Jake Johnson. In fact most of the film is heart-warningly endearing. It's a mockumentary, a type of hybrid. It has real documentation of people's ideas of what true love is and how it's played out in their lives spliced with an ambiguously fake storyline involving Yi and Michael Cera (of Arrested Development and Superbad fame).
From what I understand and have read, most people found this film to be too "quirky" or "left-of-center", but that's just the kind of movie that suits me. Especially when it comes to love. It was cute, really, really cute. With a cute soundtrack (composed by Yi herself and Cera) that adds a fairy tale-like quality to the overall production. (which you can sample here Paper Heart Soundtrack)
Speaking of Michael Cera, he plays Yi's eventual love interest and by the end of the film we are left pondering the actuality of their relationship. In truth, their partnership isn't really that important to the film or at least in my opinion. The best aspect comes from the stories played out in elementary school diorama-like reenactments involving real people's stories of true love. The insight these portray are what made the film and left a lump in my throat that I admittedly was slightly ashamed of. They tell stories of not only true love but the impact it has on the story teller's lives.
The one that stands out the most (spoiler alert), was the story of a man who had met his true love early on in his life. Unfortunately for him, he was not her true love. He goes on to explain that sometimes you can find your true love and it not actually be reciprocated. Anyway, one winter he and a guide went on a grizzly hunting trip by horseback. At a point, they had to cross a swift river and his horse loses its footing under him and they both are swept away in the current. As he is drifting the water, tranquil beneath the water he sees not the face of his true love but the face of his first wife. He then goes on to say that maybe she was actually his true love and that sometime we have what we truly wanted but sometimes it fades and goes away.
I definitely know what that's like.
Don't we all?
There is also a hilarious segment involving school children in Atlanta, Georgia. We see the pure and untainted imaginings of what small kids think of true love. For young children, these kids sure had some insightful things to say about love, especially first dates. There's a part with a chubby little white kid that literally blew my mind. It made me think of how muddled we are as adults. Stunted with insecurities we pick up as we go along and use to repress our abilities for attaining what we want.
All in all, this movie was wonderful. It had it's downsides, but hell, isn't that a little like love? I highly recommend this for those on dates, but not for those trying to figure out what true love is. And hey, maybe that person might be the one you spend the rest of your life with...
