Film review: Paper towns
Cert 12a
Two Stars
There was a time in the not-too-distant past when teenage films were a mindless cluster of fart jokes, jock posturing and boobs. But now there’s a new kind of teen film on the block – ushered in by novelists like Nicholas Sparks and John Green – that’s all about feelings. Gushing and pouring out everywhere like an overturned bucket of sentimental slosh.
The poor, sensitive sod we’re meant to sympathise with here is Q Jacobson (Nat Wolff, carried over from Green’s previous film adaptation, The Fault in our Stars), who lives next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman, a mysterious hot girl who captures the heart of everyone in Orlando, Florida.
She’s played by supermodel Cara Delevigne, who went viral while promoting this film because she was a bit surly and British on Good Day Sacramento. There’s no doubting her charisma here as she throws her substantial eyebrows into the part with gusto.
But there’s only so much you can do with a character this unlikeable.
Margo runs away from home because she’s an insufferable, attention-seeking brat – sorry, a free-spirited libertine – and Q embarks on a road-trip with his two best friends to find her for reasons even her parents can’t fathom. It’s hard to see the point of it all when Margo’s only redeeming quality is a penchant for disappearing.
The supporting cast provide a few moments of tenderness, but Paper Town’s failure to tear up adolescent stereotypes results in a film that’s nowhere near as deep or moving as it thinks it is.