Paper Towns film review

I went to see this film on Tuesday with my daughter at the Leeds/Bradford Odeon.

IMDB says: After an all night adventure, Quentin's life-long crush, Margo, disappears, leaving behind clues that Quentin and his friends follow on the journey of a lifetime.



In this Jake Schreier (Robot and Frank, Christopher Ford Sees a Film) directed film based on the 2008 book by John Green (author of The Fault in Our Stars), Nat Wolff (The Fault In Our Stars, Stuck In Love) stars as Quentin/Q, who has been obsessed by his neighbour Margo (Cara Delevingne, Anna Karenina, Grand Theft Auto V) since childhood, although they have since grown apart and gone their separate ways.

In the run up to Prom, Margo sneaks into Quentin's room and asks him to be her getaway driver in her revenge plan on cheating boyfriend Jase (Griffin Freeman, Sugar Daddies, The Fat Boy Chronicles), 'friends' Chuck (RJ Shearer, The DUFF, Beacon Point), Becca (Caitlin Carver, Impact Earth, The Fosters) and Lacey (Halston Sage, Bad Neighbours, The First Time). After an amazing night, hopeful that they have turned a corner, he is surprised to learn that she has done another one of her infamous disappearing acts. Convinced that she has left him clues and wants him to find her, he enlists his friends Ben (Austin Abrams, Ticking Clock, Gangster Squad) and Radar (Justice Smith, The Get Down, Miss Guidance) to help him. In trying to find clues, they attend their first party and take their first road trip, with Radar's girlfriend Angela (Jaz Sinclair, Into Dust, Ordained) along for the ride, and start to really live life.



SPOILER ALERT

The acting was good and the screenplay, by Scott Neustadter (500 Days of Summer, The Pink Panther 2) and Michael H. Weber (500 Days of Summer, The Pink Panther 2), remained mostly faithful to the novel*, but in parts was not believable (for example, Q making it back in time for the end of the Prom, the positioning of their 'neighbouring' houses changing throughout the film and happening to find Margo in the paper town) and for me, the ending was a let down. Yes, it is in keeping with the moral of the story, but to realise that the whole film was basically about a boy wanting to get with a selfish girl who never liked anyone other than herself anyway, was disappointing to say the least.

Trivia: Author John Green has a cameo as the voice of the shotgun-wielding father of Becca. *In the book, Angela is never invited and therefore, does not go on the road trip. This is Cara's first leading role in a film.

Tagline: Get Lost. Get found.                                                                          6/10



#PaperTowns  #NatWolff  #CaraDelevingne