Paper Towns **½ (2015, Nat Wolff, Cara Delevingne, Austin Abrams, Justice Smith) – Movie Review

Adapted from the bestselling novel by John Green, director Jake Schreier’s Paper Towns is a smart-looking and smartly acted romantic coming-of-age movie for older teenage girls and early 20something women. The Fault in Our Stars crowd might well be satisfied.

Nat Wolff stars as Quentin and Cara Delevingne plays his enigmatic neighbour Margo, who loves mysteries so much that she apparently decides to become one. First Margo takes Quentin as her accomplice on an irresponsible all-night adventure of revenge through their hometown, then disappears, apparently leaving behind cryptic clues for Quentin to decypher.

Following the clues, Quentin and his two quick-witted best friends Ben (Austin Abrams) and Radar (Justice Smith) set off on a quirky, sentimental romantic adventure that is sometimes amusing and sometimes affecting, sometimes a bit draggy.

Though not as funny or moving as it hopes, it’s still a pleasant enough film that has its moments, helped along by the strong performances by an appealing cast more than by the contrived, rather frustrating story and rather frustrating heroine.

Confused by this contrived, daft, pretentious title – elaborately but unconvincingly explained in the movie – I kept thinking this movie was called Paper Towels, which would be appropriate, as it’s handy but disposable.

Delevingne looks alluring but has little else do before disappearing, so that leaves it up to the sturdy performances of the three male main actors to keep it afloat. Wolff is very likeable but I’m not sure if he has quite enough star quality to sustain a movie like this. He does, however, have help from Abrams and Smith, who are both funny.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

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