Review by Gary Tooze

 

Production:

Theatrical: Anchor Bay Entertainment

Video: Starz / Anchor Bay

 

Disc:

Region: 'A'-locked (as verified by the Momitsu region FREE Blu-ray player)

Runtime: 1:27:56.271

Disc Size: 40,262,503,921 bytes

Feature Size: 21,849,864,192 bytes

Video Bitrate: 26.82 Mbps

Chapters: 20

Case: Standard Blu-ray case

Release date: December 1st, 2009

 

Video:

Aspect ratio: 1.78:1

Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps

Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

 

Audio:

Dolby TrueHD Audio English 3203 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3203 kbps / 24-bit (AC3 Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps)

 

Subtitles:

English (SDH), English, Spanish, none

 

Extras:

• The Making of Paper Heart (10:14 in HD!)
• Paper Heart Uncut (7:27 in HD!)
• Deleted Scenes (1/2 hour's worth in HD)
• Love Interviews with the Comedians (25:43 in SD)
• Live Musical Performances by Charlyne Yi
• Music Video
• Trailer

• Digital copy

 

Bitrate:

 

 

Description: In 'Paper Heart', Yi does not believe in love. Or so she says. 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 into a modern-day skeptic. 'Paper Heart' follows Yi as she embarks on a quest across the U.S. to make a documentary about the one subject she doesn’t fully understand: Love. Combining elements of documentary and traditional storytelling, reality and fantasy, Paper Heart brings a fresh perspective to the modern romance and redefines the classic love story.

 

 

The Film:

Charlyne Yi doesn’t believe in love. But it’s not because of past heartbreak. It’s because she’s never felt it before. So she embarks on a project with her best friend, Nick, to meet real couples and hear their stories - all in an attempt to define love and determine whether or not it truly exists or if some people are doomed to remain unloved.

Part documentary, part improvisational narrative, “Paper Heart” is an atypical yet authentic romantic comedy for people who normally find such things insufferable. For the record, I am one of those people. And “Paper Heart” charmed the jaded pants off of me.

Charlyne and Nick travel around the country interviewing anyone and everyone about love and relationships. They meet young couples and couples married 50 years. They talk to Elvis impersonators at Vegas wedding chapels and academics at universities. Meanwhile, Charlyne tries to make sense of (and resist) her budding relationship with actor Michael Cera. They both play alternate universe versions of themselves, which makes for a pretty bizarre, and totally compelling, love story.

Excerpt from Jessica Baxter at Film Threat located HERE

 

 

Image :    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were ripped directly from the Blu-ray disc.
 

While the image is unremarkable for Blu-ray it is really unnecessary to push any boundaries of dramatic visual expectation for Paper Heart. No one is expectant to grab this as a demo disc. This is only single-layered and looks adequate in terms of advancement beyond SD-DVD - colors are bright but detail never escalates to something you might find impressive. There is no depth but equally there is nothing demonstrative to complain about. It looks as it does to export the appropriate story pushing some emotional buttons along the way. I kinda of enjoyed this film and wasn't expecting to be Wow'ed by the video. And appropriately I wasn't.

 

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio :

The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 at 3203 kbps has no problem dishing out all Paper Heart throws at it which is more like the local boy scout picnic's softball lob than any type of major league fastball. There is a smidgeon of notable separation but being almost exclusively dialogue driven with zero effect noise - we don't really miss the aggression.   There are English and Spanish subtitle options and my Momitsu has identified it as being a region 'A'-locked Blu-ray disc.

 

 

Extras :

I got something out of these extras - more than the usual production featurettes. The comedian interviews were amusing with Bill Hader, Paul Rust, Jason Ritter, Bobcat Goldthwait, David Krumholtz, Demetri Martin, Paul Scheer, and Rob Huebel. Bobcat has a quick mind and impresses while some don't strike funny bone very hard - it is still a pleasure to see Yi as she both gets hit on and finds another assumed all this time that she was a guy. The Outtakes in the 'Uncut' piece were likewise enjoyable to some degree as were the 1/2 of deleted scenes but I wasn't as keen on the musical numbers as they seemed to be filler. Probably no reason for a commentary

 

 

BOTTOM LINE:
Pushing this little pseudo-documentary ditty to respectability are Yi and Cera who both have such infectious smiles. Paper Heart is as cute as you might expect - very human. There are far worse way to spend your time than watching this and the Blu-ray does an excellent job of exporting the film's soulful attributes. Some of the extras are as good as the film itself with the comedian interviews worth a few valid chuckles. I can't really encourage this Blu-ray very strongly but the simultaneously released DVD HERE is a whopping $10 cheaper and that should suffice for those interested to see Paper Heart.  

Gary Tooze

December 2nd, 2009