Film review: Paper Towns, starring Cara Delevingne, will be a hit with fans of author John Green

REVIEW: Fans of wildly popular young-adult author John Green will enjoy this cute boy-meets-girl-again story starring Cara Delevingne.

Paper Towns (M)

Director: Jake Schreier (Robot & Frank)

Starring: Nat Wolff, Cara Delevingne, Halston Sage, Austin Abrams, Justice Smith.

Rating: ***

Building an affection that will not blow over

An endearingly unassuming and quietly affecting affair, Paper Towns is an adaptation of an early novel by wildly popular young-adult author John Green (The Fault In Our Stars).

Nat Wolff (he was Isaac in Fault, remember?) plays Quentin, an average suburban teen hopelessly infatuated with the not-so-average girl next door, Margo (Cara Delevingne).

Things get interesting ... Cara Delevingne and Nat Wolff in Paper Towns.

Quentin and Margo had a history back when they were kids. The pair were close friends. Then came high school, and other friends.

Further widening the drift? Quentin became a conscientious, by-the-book student because it was the right thing to do. Margo became a rebel without a cause, because the right thing to do always felt like the wrong thing for her.

STRUGGLES: Cara Delevingne talks about depression, Paper Towns

If all of the above has you packing for a short and predictable trip down Opposites-Attract Lane, you will pleased to learn that Paper Town has a different, better route in mind.

It all starts getting interesting with just a week to go until the completion of the lead characters’ high school studies.

Strong bond ... Cara Delevingne and Nat Wolff in Paper Towns.

Late one evening — after barely speaking with her ex-friend for the best part of six long years — Margo appears at Quentin’s bedroom window.

She has an elaborate revenge scheme which needs a car and a getaway driver. Would Quentin be interested in supplying both? Of course he would.

What follows is one heck of a nocturnal adventure, the events of which totally reshape the way in which Quentin sees the world.

In these crucial scenes, the rookie actor Wolff and his even-less-experienced co-star Delevingne share an infectious chemistry that puts much better-credentialed performers to shame.

After surprisingly (and all too briefly) allowing him into her life, Margo vanishes into thin air, leaving Quentin to gather a search party from his closest friends.

While Quentin’s pals (and their could-be-would-be girlfriends) are unmistakably a nice’n’nerdly bunch, the way in which they get behind their friend’s odd quest — even while challenging his reasons for sticking so doggedly with it — generates a bunch of fine scenes here.

A casually conversational affair that capitalises on some very well-written dialogue for a film in this genre, Paper Town floats by on an air of genial melancholy many Green fans won’t mind breathing in at all.

Originally published as Film review: Paper Towns, starring Cara Delevingne, will be a hit with fans of author John Green