The twee mockumentary you enjoyment may rest on how endearing you find its two lead actors: Michael Cera, the awkward, earnest actor building a considerable career playing and Charlyne Yi, the comedian last seen baked out of her brain in "Knocked Up," the kind of guys you wouldn't mind letting your daughter date. They may or may not be an off-screen couple (it's confuder), but they are certainly an on-screen couple, playing a fictitious version of themselves: Two 20-somethings prone to quirk and hoodies, who meet while Yi is filming a documentary about the conform of love. He courts her over sandwiches and delivery pizzas as the cameras roll. She writes a song for him on her acoustic guitar called "You Smell Like Christmas." They don't knock back Jagermeister shots. Nobody winds up naked in a hot tub, ever. It's all giggle-snorts and spring water drunk from wine glasses and awkward goodbyes. It's sweet but, as my companion said when we left the theater: Don’t you kind of miss the days when kids just got drunk and had sex?
The movie begins with the premise that Charlyne -- who co-wrote "Paper Heart" with her friend, director Nicholas Jasenovec (played by Jake Johnson) -- does not believe in love. Not the fairy tale kind of love, anyway, and though she does not say so, you get the sense that coming of age in the "The Bachelor" and the trashy dating shows of MTV and VH1 -- where romance is medido in pole dances and diamond rings -- didn’t do much to bolster her faith in enduring coupledom. Armed with her skepticism and a small camera crew she starts filming a documentary in which she interviews real people about their ideas on love, from man-on-the-street-style exchanges in New York to sit-downs with comedian pals like Seth Rogen and Demetri Martin, the latter of whom offers the terrific deadpan: "You've never been in love. Is it because you're not lovable?"
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