Page to Screen: Paper Towns

The main idea of the Paper Towns movie is the same as the John Green book that it’s based on. (See my review of the book Paper Towns here.) High school senior Quentin is in love with Margo Roth Spiegelman, an enigmatic girl in his class that lives next door to him. After she convinces him to go with her on a night of epic adventure, she disappears. Quentin is determined to find her and enlists his other friends to help him. Like the book, they go on a road trip to track Margo down. The movie’s timeline has been switched up quite a bit from the book and there are five people on the road trip, not four like in the book.

For once, I actually liked the changes. The road trip was less zany than in the book and felt more realistic to me.  Instead of Q and his friends missing a significant school event to go on the road trip, they are trying to get back before prom. It made more sense to me and was less of a madcap adventure. I generally do not care for madcap. The worst thing that the movie and the book have in common is that it’s hard to understand Margo’s appeal because we don’t get to know her very well. It was a little easier to understand in the movie because supermodel Cara Delevingne plays Margo and she’s freaking gorgeous. And maybe that’s the point – people love Margo because she’s beautiful, not because they know her.

Overall, I thought Paper Towns was a great adaptation of the book, and even teens who haven’t read the book will enjoy it.