“ The town was paper, but the memories were not” What is a paper town you might ask? Well it is not a town made of paper mache but instead back when they were making maps, the mapmakers would make up a town or a road as a type of copycat protection. Now the next question you might ask is what does a made up town have to do about anything? Well if you are a fan of John Green’s novels, then you know the answer is, everything.
Quentin’s (Nat Wolff) life changed the day Margo’s (Cara Delevingne) family moved in next door to him. Right away Quentin was smitten, and soon he and Margo became partners in crime. Soon though, they grow up and grow apart as friends, though Quentin’s affection for Margo never changes. While Margo seemed to live her life on a whim, Quentin’s was on a path that he never strayed from, that is until one night. The night Margo came back into his life. She enlists his help to right some wrongs and some mistakes. Quentin jumps at the chance, and it’s a night that will take him on a path of many firsts. After the evening is over, Margo disappears, but leaves clues to where she might have gone, clues Quentin believes are for him. After discovering the answers to the clues left behind, he and his friends take a road trip of discovery, on who they are and to solve the mystery of Margo.
“Paper Towns” is a story of friendship and love, but it is also the story about believing a person is more than a person. Everyone has met that someone that you build up to be greater than what they really are. Sometimes you find out the truth, but other times you ignore what you see and continue to keep them on that pedestal. With a source material that is good, all writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber have to do is stay true to the feeling of the book. I did not read the book, and think that any movie based off a book should be judged on it’s own merits. While the pace of the story feels deliberate, it doesn’t feel like Neustadter and Weber’s previous work, which were stories that went against the grain. This story, while it is not theirs, feels safe, the type that would never color outside the lines. You want the movie to be like the character of Margo, but it keeps it more like Quentin. Everything about this movie really is just fine, the acting, the writing and the directing, which is done by Jake Schreier (Robot & Frank). This could have been great, but I guess you can say it wasn’t in the stars. Instead you have a movie that at times you will enjoy, as well as feel indifferent about, in the end you may be better off with the paper version.
Brian Taylor
https://youtu.be/rFGiHm5WMLk