Paper Towns | the movie review

When I heard they were making a movie of my FAVORITE book, I got very excited. Sitting in the movie theater, in those (oh so soft and lovely) red chairs, I was even more excited. So today, I'm very happy to share my thoughts in this review of Paper Towns, the movie.


First off all: John Green, you're awesome! The Fault in Our Stars was already a huge success, now Paper Towns!

I think Cara Delevingne is the perfect person to play Margo Roth Spiegelman. She plays Margo very well. In my opinion, though, Radar (who in the book doesn't have glasses!) and Ben look a lot younger than Margo and Quentin. Still though, they all play the characters very convincingly. Great actors :).

The movie starts showing the young Margo and Quentin. What I think is great, is that they made the relation between Margo and Quentin when they were young very clear, in a short part of the movie. Shortly after that, 'Revenge plot begins', as Margo says in the movie. The 11 things Margo says she wants to do in the book, end up being just a few things shown in the movie. In a way I wish that they'd shown all of them, but on the other side I think it's good that they left out the not so important parts of their 'revenge plot', which makes the important parts, I guess you could say, even more important. Also, the scene in SeaWorld is left out, but instead, they added the dancing that happens there to the SunTrust building scene.

Then, Margo disappears, and Quentin, Radar and Ben try to find all the clues she left behind. The process of finding the clues is sped up a bit, but I liked the speed, because otherwise I think that part may have been a bit boring.

Somewhere towards the middle of the movie, there was a moment where everyone in the movie theater gasped at the same time. I don't want to spoil it, so I'll just say this: someone familiar is going to appear somewhere...:)

Paper Towns really makes you think about how we see other people. The whole time Quentin saw Margo as someone extraordinarily special, but in the end, like he says in the movie: 'She was just a girl.'

All in all, I think Paper Towns is a great movie with some good life messages. 'What makes you happiest in life; what is your miracle?' And 'Go out of your comfort zone. All the things you want are out there'. I would definitely recommend Paper Towns to everyone.

Go watch it if you haven't yet!

source: screenshot of the Paper Towns trailer

You have to get lost, before you find yourself. 

-Margo