Wolff, who was fine in The Fault in Our Stars (last year's Green adaptation), shows little in the way of emotion or range here. After sitting through about 95 minutes, one deserves a little more than sermonizing about what it means to grow up. I admire what the film is trying do with respect to defying conventions but the means to achieve this are awkward. In Paper Towns, the journey is dramatically inert - an empty half-hour comprised of minor misadventures and inane chatter among the five friends in the car. There's a saying about road trip movies that the journey, not the destination, matters. In order to find the love of his life, he must leave his comfort zone, even going so far as to skip school and embark on a 1200-mile road trip.
After that, she disappears but leaves behind a series of clues for amateur sleuth Quentin to piece together. Then, one night a few weeks before the Senior Prom, she hijacks him to be her accomplice on an "adventure" that includes a series of revenge-fueled pranks. (Their differences are italicized in a scene where they are shown bicycling side-by-side with him wearing a helmet and her without one.) Through this, Nat Wolff provides a voiceover talking about how invigorating it was to be around Margo but how, in the end, they drifted apart. For about half that time, we are treated to glimpses of Quentin and Margo's childhood as they grow up as best friends.
The movie opens with an interminable 30 minute setup. It's less explicable why the same is true of Quentin. Since Paper Towns is presented from Quentin's perspective, it's understandable that Margo would be so poorly drawn (we're seeing her as he sees her, not as she is). Like Quentin, Margo isn't a real person - she's a wafer-thin movie confection defined exclusively by her free-spiritedness. She's Margo (Cara Delevingne), one of the most popular girls in school and Quentin's private obsession. He is seduced out of his cocoon by the girl across the street. He's a studious guy who gets good grades, never cuts class, and doesn't sneak out of his house at night. He is defined by a single personality trait: his conformity. In Paper Towns, the narrator and protagonist, Quentin (Nat Wolff), is grounded but uninteresting. The contrived storyline offers little opportunity for characters to grow and the meandering narrative trajectory and anticlimactic ending will have some viewers wondering why they bothered.Ĭoming-of-age stories work best when they are populated with relatable characters. Based on the novel by John Green, Paper Towns is an exercise in artifice. Paper Towns is the third coming-of-age story to reach screens during the summer of 2015, following in the wake of the vastly superior Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and Dope.