By Lisa Johnson Mandell

In the beginning, teen coming of age drama Paper Towns has potential. Childhood friends find a dead body in their neighborhood. Fast forward to the friends’ senior year, and Margo (Cara Delevingne) climbs through Quentin’s (Nat Wolff) window, cajoling him to embark on a revenge mission against a number of classmates who done her wrong. You might think you’re in for a female Ferris Bueller type jaunt, until you discover that Margo’s revenge pranks are not all that original, clever or amusing. The next morning she disappears, and the rest of the film is about Quentin and his friends trying to find Margo, and, as you’ve probably guessed by now because no teen movie cliche is left unturned, in the process, they find themselves.

Yes, this is all about the nerdy guy yearning after the popular yet unpredictable girl, and yes, it culminates at the Senior Prom. Quentin’s guy posse is made up of characters straight out of Teen Fiction 101: the funny, outspoken pip squeak (Austin Abrams), and the brainy ethnic nerd (Justice Smith), although the latter character is made a little more interesting by his family’s obsessive collection of Black Santas. All adults, especially parents, are afterthoughts, and seem to be totally clueless about what their kids are thinking, feeling or doing. Orlando, where the action takes place, is painted as a town where adults happily fund their kids’ dangerous jaunts all over the country with little more than a smile and a nod.

The creative “twist” is intended to be Margo’s mysterious past and present — she supposedly ran away with the circus for awhile and toured as a groupie with a popular rock band, all before she was 17. Now she’s left the most obscure and tedious clues ever to show up ion the big screen, so Quentin can find her. The friends set out on a multi-state road trip in a minivan and do “uproarious” things like Kiss! Buy junk food! Swerve to miss a cow! The hilarity never ends! I’m bored all over again just writing about it.

Paper Towns was adapted from a popular young adult novel of the same name by John Green (The Fault in Our Stars), and directed by Jake Schreier (Robot and Frank?). I’m sure fans of the genre will flock to it. It’s actually quite harmless, and, at the end of a very long, slow, uneventful journey, it has an excellent message. I just wish the point could have been made with a little more panache.

PG 13

1 Hour 49 Minutes

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PAPER TOWNS Review — More Like (Wet) Paper Towels