I’m not going to bullshit you, I’m a huge fan of John Green. I own and have enjoyed all of his books, and think he’s a a master of young adult fiction.
When his last book, The Fault in Our Stars, was adapted to film, I was surprised with how well it translated to the medium and completely captured the spirit of the book. When it was announced his novel Paper Towns was going to be adapted by 20th Century Fox, I was less excited. It’s my least favorite book of Green’s, albeit still pretty good.
The adaptation stars Nat Wolff as Q, a teenager who’s lived next to Margot Roth Spiegelman (Cara Delevingne) his entire life. While the duo used to be close as children, they’ve drifted apart growing up. Q still has a thing for Spiegelman, despite their friendship cratering. The two aren’t on speaking terms anymore, until one night when Margot breaks into Q’s bedroom and asks for his help to get revenge on a cheating ex-boyfriend and all of those people who hid the truth from her.
After their shenanigans, which includes taking a nude picture of the ex-boyfriend and nairing off one of his friend’s eyebrows, Q thinks the two are going to become close again. But when he wakes up the next morning, Margot is gone.
The majority of the movie features Q and his group of friends Radar (newcomer Justice Smith), Ben Starling (Austin Abrams) and Lacey Pemberton (Halston Sage) finding clues Spiegelman left about her disappearance, and traveling all over Orlando — and beyond — to try to find her.
Wolff stole scenes in The Fault in Our Stars as the blind Isaac, but he’s not asked to do to much in this film. You’re supposed to feel sympathetic for his character, but his search for Margot feels desperate and doesn’t connect on the same emotional level as it does in the book. Delevingne is OK as Margot, bringing a solid presence but you can tell she’s a rookie as she continually fights her British accent throughout the flick. Considering she’s a supermodel, they do a great job of making her look like a normal teenager. For those keen on how she’ll play the Enchantress in Suicide Squad, this film proves she can at least act competently.
The real stars of the movie are the three side characters. Abrams is a revelation as Ben, who steals every scene he’s in, while providing comic relief. All he wants is a prom date as the deadline nears, and who can’t relate to that? Justice Smith, who didn’t have any serious acting credits before the film, plays Radar well as the voice of reason within the group who, hilariously, is deeply embarrassed about his parents’ Guinness World Record-breaking collection of Black Santas and telling his girlfriend about them. Sage plays Lacey, one of Spiegelman’s friends who’s sick of being labeled as just a pretty face — and she’s definitely more than that. What makes the three characters work so well is they actually feel like real teenagers.
The screenplay written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber doesn’t do director Jake Schreier (Robot & Frank) any favors as it took far to many creative liberties with its original source material. In the book, there’s a fear Margot might have killed herself and that option doesn’t really present itself in the movie, which changes the urgency of finding her. The subplot of Q and Margot breaking into SeaWorld on their adventure is entirely abandoned as well.
Perhaps the biggest change is that the ending flips the book on its head, as instead of the entire group finding a completely different-looking Margot in a barn in the Paper Town Algoe, Q temporarily abandons his friends and eventually finds her in a nearby town. A film can never keep all of the subplots of a book it’s adapting, but those changes impacted the story heavily.
Disappointment also might be found if you’re a fan of The Fault in Our Stars and expected another gooey tear-jerking, coming-of-age story. This movie leans more towards being a comedy than a drama, despite some dramatic moments. I actually am glad it tried to be different. Although TFioS‘ Ansel Elgort cameos as a gas station worker in one of the biggest cases of fan servicing I’ve ever seen in a movie.
With all that said, there’s more good than bad in this flick. Schreier’s direction is good, the acting is solid and the soundtrack (like TFioS) is great. Yes, it’s filled with cliches and doesn’t exactly have a new spin on the Tween-Dramedy genre, but it’s entertaining for both fans of the book and newcomers. I was worried Paper Towns didn’t have enough meat and potatoes to warrant being made into a film, and while my fears weren’t entirely displaced, it’s another solid entry for adaptations of John Green’s fabulous books.
Now can we get a Looking for Alaska adaptation?
