Review of Paper Towns (2015) by Will J — 22 Jul 2015

I won't talk too much about the story. I love the novel (although it is not my favorite John Green book, that belongs to "Looking for Alaska"), and the movie stayed mostly true to its source. This is to be expected, since John Green was heavily involved in the production process. However the movie did realize it was a movie, and not a book, so it also changed things enough to not bore the audience. It could have done with a little less narration in the beginning, though.

Casting is what I was really worried about coming into this movie. From John Green's "Vlogbrothers" videos on YouTube, I knew Cara Delevingne had the right amount of crazy to pull off that side of her character Margo Roth Spiegelman. What I was worried about was the more serious moments. Cara does an excellent job, and this movie really shows off her range of acting. But she is not the actor who carries this movie. Nat Wolff, who plays the male lead, Quentin, is the real star. His reluctance to go along with Margo, his obsession with finding her, and the revelations at the end were all acted perfectly. John Green has praised him constantly in his videos, and watching the movie I could see why. Secondary casting was also done quite well, though there isn't much to say about them. None of them carried the movie as much as the leads, but they didn't lower its quality any.

Pacing of book adaptations is always the trick. Books can be slow to get to the point and are mostly narration, which doesn't translate to the screen very good at all. Add in the fact that if you included every action and piece of dialogue, you would have a screen play far exceeding the usual 2 hour limit of a movie. The pace of this movie was done right. It's not an action movie, so don't expect car chases and explosions. But whenever the movie started to get too serious, humor was injected too keep the light feel to the movie. I found myself, and several others in the theater, laughing out loud. Don't worry though, the areas that need to be.

serious are played straight.

I hardly ever give full marks, I think full marks mean perfection, which is unobtainable. This movie is as close to perfection as a book adaptation could possibly be though, and thus has earned this rare honor. I wouldn't be surprised if this became a classic coming of age tale. I do have one question for John Green though... did you know there is a sign for a topless gogo bar in the background of a scene? Wtf?

#wallofcow #dftba.