Paper Towns – One for the youth

There are some films designed for multiple generations.  Which adult hasn’t enjoyed ‘Toy Story’ equally as much as their child (only on different levels!)?  However, ‘Paper Towns’ seems to be one of those ‘young adult’ tales that can only really be believed if you haven’t really lived that long in life (yes, I’m an old cynic).  It’s the typical ‘boy meets girl’ story where the two of them grow up together – as friends, obviously – only for her to start partying hard during her late teens, while he studies hard for later life.  Naturally, once their circles have moved in different directions, he assumes they’ll never get together – until she appears at his bedroom window one night, asking to borrow his car. 

Now, the boy and girl in question – Quentin and Margo – are both likable enough (and played respectively by Nat Wolff and Cara Delevingne – who, despite what some people say, is actually quite a good young actress who can put on a decent enough American accent), as are their group of friends.  So the cast are a fun bunch of people who you will feel drawn to (even if they do offer little new in terms of ‘stereotypical American teens’).  The problems I can with ‘Paper Towns’ simply came in the form of its pacing and general believability. 

The first third of the movie is Nat and Cara, cheering fully tearing up the town in a wild night of throwing caution to the wind and general mayhem.  This is fair enough if this is how the whole film was.  However, and hopefully I’m not including a spoiler here, Cara then disappears in one of her character’s trademark ‘mysteries’ leaving the rest of the cast wondering where she’s gone and how they can find her.  And so, for fans of Cara, they may feel a little short-changed by her sudden lack of screen time, as the rest of the movie is taken up with the rest of the cast’s road-trip as they try to solve the mystery of where she went to and why.

I think I’ve probably said enough about the plot, so I won’t spoil what happens, only to say that – despite the lack of the ‘other half’ on the love interest part of the story – there are a few things even a hardened cynic such as myself didn’t see coming.  It seems that whether people love or hate this film depends on how they feel about its ending.  Personally, I really enjoyed how they wrapped it up – my only beef was about how the rest of the story was pretty unbelievable.  However, what do I know?  I’m clearly not this film’s demographic – my thirteen year old daughter absolutely loved it, so fair play to the millennials if they appreciate it more than me!

5/10 a hard trek, a bit like unicycling to Mordor and back