REVIEW: ‘Paper Towns’ based on young adult fiction by John Green opens July 24


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Courtesy of The Huffington Post 

Young adult fiction tends to be appealing to people of all walks of life due to the typical coming-of-age story. John Green wrote “Paper Towns” in 2008, and has a history of writing the coming-of-age stories in a unique way.

Unlike many books of this genre, “Paper Towns” is told from the perspective of a male protagonist, Quentin “Q” Jacobsen. The film adaptation of “Paper Towns,” opened July 24 and was directed by Jake Schreier. The film was well complimented with an upbeat score by Ryan Lott.

The book and movie take place in Orlando Florida, and open with Quentin (Nat Wolff) stating that he believes everyone gets a miracle. His miracle was he lived next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman (Cara Delevingne).

Quentin and Margo drifted apart significantly after a short stint of childhood friendship. Margo becomes the queen bee at school. Quentin buries himself in schoolwork and his small group of friends, however he has always kept his eye secretly on Margo.

Run time: 113 minutes

Rating: PG-13

Overall grade: B+

Fast forward to the last weeks of their senior year in high school, Margo suddenly asks Quentin one night to help her perform a series of pranks. She wants revenge on her soon to be ex-boyfriend, Jase, who she discovered was cheating on her with her best friend, as well as several other far from faithful “friends” of hers.

Quentin reluctantly agrees to be her chauffeur for the night. The two start their nightlong adventure, but not before stopping at a local Publix to stock up on plenty of catfish to hand out that night.

After successfully taking care of each prank on Margo’s list, the night ends with Quentin and Margo on the top floor of the SunTrust Building in downtown Orlando. As the two stare their neighborhood from above, Margo proclaims they live in a paper town made of paper people: “I’ve lived here for eighteen years and I have never once in my life come across anyone who cares about anything that matters.”

One of the more memorable parts of Quentin and Margo’s nightlong adventure, breaking into Sea World, was left out of the movie and replaced with a quick return home for the night. The two say their goodbyes, and head their separate ways.

The next day Margo is not at school. Several days later she is declared missing, and this is not the first time. Margo has a history of running away and leaving discrete clues about her whereabouts.

Quentin picks up on some of her clues this time. With help from his friends Radar (Justice Smith) and Ben (Austin Abrams), Quentin tries to figure out where Margo ran away to, and more importantly what she is running from.

Overall book to movie adaptation was fairly well done, cutting out moments the book had strictly to streamline, but also plot building in other areas. Fans of the book will not be too disappointed by the overall adaptation, and may even be more at peace with the end of the movie.

Arguably the most significant performance in the movie was Delevingne’s as Margo. Being one of her first major roles, Delevingne did a wonderful job portraying the disconnect Margo had with her setting and the people that surrounded her in a town she found to be fake.

Like the young adult fiction genre, movies, like “Paper Towns” can be enjoyed by a wide variety of audiences due to the coming of age experiences that many can relate to. Green’s book and the film adaptation reflect this.

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