From the moment Margo Roth Spiegelman moved in across the road from Quinten when they were young, he has been in love with her. Once forming a close bond to one another due to the simple reasons of being neighbours and the same age, over time they grew apart and became part of different social statuses – with Margo (Cara Delevingne) being part of a popular clique while Q (Wolff) is a simpleton with numerous targets to earn a happy life. But when Margo suddenly breaks into Q's bedroom with a mission of revenge following the discovery that her boyfriend cheated on her. But when she mysteriously disappears after that night with a series of clues in her wake, Q, his two best friends Ben and Radar (Austin Abrams and Justice Smith respectively) and Margo's friend Lacey (Halston Sage) to embark on the quest to locate the missing miracle of Q's life before prom comes and it's too late...
With the film split into three distinctive parts, with the first cementing the relationship between the two, followed by the heist-esque aspect of their brief reunion and the later search, the film does occasionally drag its feet through the genre's usual footsteps despite an opening which does provoke interest. But once the adventurous duo of Margo and Q reaches its conclusion in the office tower and it deviates onto focusing on the mysterious missing girl that Q is so deeply infatuated with, the film does begin to slow down quite severely, almost to the point of a standstill. And while the later roadtrip element does bring life back into it, it takes quite a while for it to kick-start while we instead bring focus onto Q's two friends and their arcs, alongside Lacey and her place all of it. But on the plus side, there isn't an out-of-place sequence during the entirety of the film, and it should be noted that Green handles the occasional comedic aspects present here much better than before, and while never gut-bustlingly funny it is at least easier to get through than some of the romantic elements from Fault in Our Stars.
As our hopelessly in love (but not really) lead male Quinten, Nat Wolff is saved from being the well-spoken, extensive lexicon-talking machine that dampened Stars, and is instead a lot more like a human, and plays it as such. While his understanding and motivation for his actions will likely be questioned as perhaps going a little far for a crush, Wolff does at least make the guy rather likable, and his character growth from goal-driven A-Grade robot to adrenaline-fueled soul-searcher does happen at a natural pace. However, the lack of consequences given to him from his mother and teachers for his sudden divergence does affect the character only by sheer existence – a guy who has a sudden change of pace but doesn't get questioned about it by anyone. As the puzzling and mostly absent Margo, Cara Delevingne fills the bewilderment machine that somehow captivates Q so much rather well despite her limited acting experience to date. Whilst she does fit playing a younger character, the character itself does come across less as a teenage delinquent and more like an older character trapped in a younger person's body. Maybe that's why Delevingne was cast, but despite her supposed place as Q's 'prize' she is thankfully far more than that.
By Q's side, Austin Abrams is the gross friend who lies about who he's 'laid' with and is stuck with a nickname which has purged him since his early days of high school. Because of this, his character can be sometimes off-putting, with his story arc revolving around getting a date for prom and trying to grab the attention fro Margo's friend Lacey being limited and a tad too predictable to really warrant much interest from. But as the comedic one of the trio, he does at least have some success on that front – even if the gross-out-ness of it all is usually the reasoning for that. On Q's other side is Justice Smith, who's arc revolves around girlfriend Jaz Sinclair and keeping her away from the more embarrassing side of him – including his friends and his parents weirdly specific collection of objects (I won't spoil what, but's very obscure) - while doing right by her and keeping things between the two of them well. He's likable enough as the semi-nerd, and does occasionally earn a laugh of his own (although one is now ill-placed and should be approached with caution), but never brings much to the plate aside from the aforementioned drama and nerdiness. Meanwhile Halston Sage offers good chemistry but little else with Wolff despite being designated to Abrams but at least has fun with the role, whilst Sinclair is introduced late in the game and is there solely to be with Smith and maybe some additional diversity to the ranks.
Paper Towns is a superior step-up from last summer's big hit, but is still riddled with a few problems. It suffers from some of the standard clichés of the teen romance genre and ends on a particularly low note, but is at least enjoyable and rarely raises questions about some of the decisions made by these characters. But it's evident that the films peaks at its elaborate prank sequence and struggles to figure out where else it should go, leading to a main romance which lacks much interest and a far superior concept withheld within for a B-plot instead. Occasionally funny but never heart-warming, Paper Towns does at least deserve a little bit more attention than it's currently receiving. 6/10.
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