Judging from the hit movie version of John Green’s “The Fault in Our Stars” and Jake Schreier’s adaptation of Green’s 2008 YA novel “Paper Towns”, it would seem likely that he didn’t date much as a teenager.
Advertisement
A high-school boy goes looking for the runaway girl he loves.
There are a lot of ways a story like this could play out, and “Paper Towns” opts for sober, heartwarming and heartbreaking reality.
Cara Delevingne and girlfriend Annie Clark attended the New York premiere of Paper Towns on Tuesday.
Neighbors since childhood, Quentin and Margo are barely speaking to each other as the movie begins, with Margo as a popular teen and Quentin a nerdy outcast. Then, finally, we see Margo one last time, gallivanting across the country on adventures both real and imagined as Q speculates about what she’s doing now. He finds out who Margo really is along the way. Awh. Alas, they do. Pausing pregnantly between clauses to add to their trite profundity, Quentin recites the moral of the story, and it’s as phony as the towns of the title. It also gave an audience score of 69%, significantly lower than Fault in our Stars 86%. It comfortably, and sometimes annoyingly, cruises along, the only thing making it kind of different is when the guy doesn’t quite get the girl. “We all knew as soon as she walked in”. The search leads Quentin and his quick-witted friends on an exhilarating adventure that is equal parts hilarious and moving. “She’s fearless and I’m pretty fearless too“. This news, of course, is brought to light after he professes his love for her.
Cara Delevingne wants the public to know she didn’t strut directly from the fashion runway onto Hollywood movie sets. Because, based on her character on the screen, Margo isn’t even remotely likable.
They deliver payback Margo style (silly vandalism and embarrassing pranks), and make it back home without being punched by the victims or collared by the police, but she doesn’t show up for school the next day. They also get some laugh lines in, as when nerd Radar (Smith) disputes Quentin’s assertion they have been to parties before (“If there’s a tuba there, it’s not a party.”). And, somehow, she can afford to run away and live on her own for an undetermined amount of time without working. There’s a sticky trap in that the supposedly beguiling Margo reads as not so much. “They’d be giving the cameras an all-access pass to their fabulous lifestyles, from who they’re dating to their careers”.
Advertisement
At last, a movie about teens on the cusp of adulthood that has heart, wit and soul. Twenty-somethings will find it nice to reminisce on simpler times. The film rarely subverts the trappings of high school romance, neatly ticking off the boxes of well-worn tropes one after the other. Author and vlogger John Green posted a picture to Instagram on Thursday confessing that he snuck in to see Paper Towns in the theaters.
