Paper Towns (2015)

User Review

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  TheMovieDiorama

  6 / 10

  Paper Towns is the equivalent of eating vanilla ice cream. It's nice to look at but ultimately leaves a bland aftertaste. I'm not the biggest fan of young adult romance films, and it seems to be a popular trend as of late...so here we have another one. Quentin has been in love with Margo since they were young kids cycling around the neighbourhood. They grew apart, she recruits him for a prank-filled night, she leaves and it's up to Quentin to follow the breadcrumbs that leads to her heart. Such romance. Such cuteness. Such niceness. It's a nice story surrounded by nice, sprinkled with additional nice and wrapped up in nice paper. That's my biggest problem. It's sweet, tender and occasionally humorous but the formulaic and one-dimensional approach prevents the narrative from actually going anywhere. Heck, even that one emotional scene towards the end felt happy. I've seen animations more depressing and heartfelt than this. Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely story about love, friendship and testing your limitations. Delevingne and Wolff are well matched and have good chemistry. I found Quentin's college friends utterly relatable, mostly because I was that guy in school who would actually recite the Pokémon theme tune (don't deny, you know you love it). Surprisingly the cinematography hit me, it was high quality for this genre! Every shot looked the part so was pleasantly surprised. The cryptic breadcrumb trail was interesting and was easily the best part of the film. It's just unfortunate that the third act's road trip loses that well earned intrigue. The characters were bland, the story was formulaic and it all just felt too...nice. Nothing in the screenplay allows the characters to feel! It's all smiles, laughs and one tear (I counted one!!). The relationships seemed forced and, can't believe I'm saying this, Delevingne needed more screen time. She was enigmatic and elusive. In the end, Paper Towns is the kind of film you would watch if you are feeling down. It's nice with good performances but doesn't further itself to be better. Standard formula.

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