Review of Paper Towns (2015) by Lyra B — 23 Jul 2015

Paper Towns was well-acted, nicely shot and heart-warming movie. The hype for this movie was intense as teens all across the globe awaited another movie adaptation from the bestselling author, John Green.

Having read this book and the other 3 books Green has written, it is safe to say that he appeals to a young audience and the actors do a great job of capturing that young, high-school essence. The story itself was a classic girl-next-door romance, but that surface-level view is altered as the story progresses.

The themes explored are more about the icy jarring nature of growing up and the discovery that people aren't always what we think they are. Although not new concepts, the story attempts to send messages about high school and growing up anchored to the relatable phenomenon of falling in love for the first time.

One of the most powerful quotes from the book is brought to life in the movie: "what a treacherous thing it is to believe that a person is more than just a person." This is something I think the movie did really well, it used exact quotes from the book and manners of speaking.

The lines that Quentin spoke mimicked the way he spoke in the book. I don't usually enjoy when a movie has a lot of voice-over, but Quentin (Nat Wolff) did a really good job with this. His voice was very natural and easy going.

There were small moments where he would be saying something, and pause with a little laughter which made his character really come to life and appear very personal. There were some differences between the book and the movie which could be upsetting to some fans, but personally, it didn't harm the overall effect of the movie.

The most prominent example would be the scene where Quentin and his friends actually find Margo, or in the case of the movie, just Quentin. In the book, the gang finds Margo in the abandoned house and she is surprised and quite unhappy to see them.

This angers the group, and they end up leaving. However, in the movie, they do not find Margo and everyone except Quentin wants to go home. This leaves the main character with the job of sending his best friends (and new friends) away.

He has to consciously choose to stay behind and disregard the advice of his closest friends for someone he was friends with 9 years ago. I think this is a powerful statement because it resonates with the idea of the entire book.

Here's this boy who leaves everything and everyone to chase after this girl based on nothing more than faith. When he finds Margo, he later realizes that he was naïve and misjudged to put so much faith into a "mirror-image" of his love and through this he gains actualization and a stronger idea of life, another thing the movie did well.

Between the two cases we have a) his friends choosing to go because they don't like the way Margo is reacting which is more about Margo than it is about Quentin. And b) his friends leaving because Quentin tells them to.

In this second scenario it is about him, and his path. This makes the message so much clearer and reiterates this false hope that he has place in Margo and what becomes of it. It is easy for a movie like this to become a cautionary tale about how we shouldn't put too much trust in another person, but I think the way that the story is told offers another path.

It is only through this crazy adventure that Quentin realizes that the story isn't about Margo, it is about him. We see traces of this as he makes his own decisions and breaks out of his comfort zone, but we see it again when he doesn't get mad at Margo for sending him on a wild goose chase.

He isn't mad because from the experience he learnt a valuable lesson. Furthermore, Margo asks him to come with her, and Quentin now knows that he has his own life to live so he says no. Returning home, he says goodbye to his friends and to high school and hello to the prospect of a more fulfilling life.

I think teenagers are told so often what they should gain from high school and how they should act. There are always signs that say if you do this and this, you will have a good time. But honestly, there is no "for sure" in growing up.

This story showed the audience that no matter how you chose to live out high school, you will always have the chance to cherish it. The popular girl, Lacey who comes along on the adventure decided to be social and involved in school whereas Quentin's best friends, Radar and Ben chose a different path.

But they all went on the journey together, and that's the real message about high school. It doesn't matter what you chose to do, as long as YOU chose to do it. I was able to forgive some of the discrepancies because of the powerful messages brought forth but just to touch on those for a second-I felt that the part in the beginning where Margo and Quentin go on their mission was a bit lost.

The tasks weren't really explained or made clear, other than the fact that she was upset about her boyfriend. She made it clear that there were "9 tasks" but the audience didn't really know what those were.

It could have been 9 distinct things that were all shown or they really did 9 things, but they just didn't show us all of them. There was no sense of where they were in their mission; which makes it hard to follow along and get invested.

The reason they shave of Chuck Parson's eyebrow is because he is one of Quentin's "enemies," this isn't explained in the movie and this makes that sense lose a lot of depth. This was easily the most interesting part of the book and it was a bit of a letdown.

A simple way they could've amended this was have Margo's lovable voice describing each mission in the beginning or as they came sequentially. Another thing that wasn't really explained was the consequences of everyone's actions.

For example, we see Quentin on the phone with his mom saying that they are going to New York and then the parents are never brought up again. It is explained in the book that both Quentin's parents are psychologists, and since they work with kids that do such reckless things, they are usually more than understanding with outbreaks such as this, as long as he is honest with them.

However, these flaws were masked with great actors and a great script. Overall, the movie has an ambiguous feel to it. I feel like there is space to interpret the events and situations, which again repeats the notion that people are complex and different.

This allows everyone to gain something different from the story. I find this lovely and special-like the movie itself.