Breaking Your Icons - A Head-to-Head Breakdown/Review of 'Go Set a Watchman' and 'Paper Towns'

Two of the most pleasant surprises I've had over this summer, insofar as my reading and perusing of films has been concerned, has been a double whammy of Harper Lee's 'sequel' to 'To Kill a Mockingbird', 'Go Set a Watchman', and the film adaptation of John Green's 'Paper Town'. I wasn't expecting much from either, and ended up being quite emotionally floored by the former, and unexpectedly entertained and provoked into thought, by the latter. And perhaps even more so by the common ground I found both material covered; that of cutting our heroes, our myths and legends which we gravitate towards and worship, down to size and, for better or worse.

I must say, with regards to 'Go Set a Watchman' I was a bit in two minds about it before I started. Preconceptions can either hype and disappoint, or prematurely dismiss, and there was a bit of both before I began my trip down Maycomb County once again. I guess all my initial reservations were a combination of bated breath and cynical callousness; I couldn't wait to read it, and yet another part of me, the little fucker in my head, repeatedly insisted that it would hit me right in the childhood, and ruin all that Atticus Finch stood for me and my ways. And I was right in a way. The story begins as not so much a continuation, as a revisiting of Maycomb County, reintroducing and familiarising both us and Jean Louise to its ways and patterns before turning into both a trip down memory lane, picking up where we'd left off from Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, Jem et all (none of whom feature here, unfortunately), and also a re-examination of the past through the present. Without spoiling too much, Jean Louise feels very much a fish out of water, out of sync with the way things are in her hometown and constantly in flux about her relationship with a prospective fiancé, her family and the changing attitudes of the south to race relations. A particular shocking revelation halfway through the book resulted in a compulsion to rip its pages out and like Miss Jean Louise Finch, find some way, any way, back into the days of Scout. I was frustrated and upset, and had half a mind to just quit on it, before realising: maybe that's the point. Maybe I'm upset because Jean Louise is upset. So I bit down on the compulsion, made my way through the rest of 'Watchman', and at its conclusion felt completely, emotionally impacted.

In a way, I guess, I'll never read TKAM in the same way, nor watch the beloved film, ever again, nor will I see Atticus Finch in the same light. And yes, in a way I might subconsciously have been willing that he'd remain the embodiment of human perfection I'd seen him in previously; but see, that's the point I think, about 'Go Set a Watchman'. Written before TKAM, I will say this: it exudes truth, honesty out of its characters in a both beautiful but gut-wrenching manner, by deconstructing them all through the loss of innocence and the attainment, however painful, of necessary revelation. So when similar pangs began swelling as I watched 'Paper Towns', I must say I was rather taken aback; having found the previous Green adaptation effort, the profoundly boring and pretentious (in my opinion, of course, and I can see why so many people loved it) 'The Fault in Our Stars', this fresh breath of air into the teenage-dramedy genre I'd felt had lost its way since the constant ape-ing of 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' post-2012, was not only enjoyable but genuinely compelling. Were it not for 'Mr Holmes' and 'Mad Max', it'd be my film of the year so far.

Much of the success of 'Paper Towns' should be attested to the excellent direction of the criminally underrated Jake Schreier, who also helmed the entertaining and quietly moving 'Robot & Frank' back in 2012. Here, he unleashes even more of the promise he displayed in that film with his ability to guide actors and script through the right beats and the right tones for maximum impact, without ever verging on the overly sentimental territory 'The Fault in Our Stars' essentially set camp in for the whole film. One does wonder, in fact, whether Schreier, screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, and Green used TKAM as a reference point, seeing as how seamlessly craft what, strictly speaking, is a fairly typical suburban town in Orlando, Florida, into a backdrop for some truly magical cinematic moments, not unlike how Lee managed to make the simplicities of Maycomb County stand out in TKAM.  'Paper Towns', pre-credits, resembles TKAM in more ways than one through the voiceover by our protagonist Quentin 'Q' Jacobsen (Nat Woolf) recalling summer memories between him and his childhood friend and girl next door Margo Roth Spiegelman, and a particular mystery that sticks out in his mind. It's rather striking how Schreier, Lee, and Robert Mulligan (director of the 1962 adaptation of TKAM) employ the medium of the narrative voice to convey such a beautiful sense of nostalgia. The wonderment that children feel at every choice discovery, and mystery waiting to be uncovered, is so palatably conveyed by this combination of innocence and retrospective insight into innocence after experience, and whether it's the curious case of Boo Radley or the burgeoning friendship between Q and Margo, it's magic at its most grounded.

'Go Set a Watchman' though is an entirely different sort of beast. If you may, it's fits alongside TKAM in a similar way to how everything in the 'present-day' fits in with the past in 'Paper Towns'. Jean Louise's return to home turf gradually becomes not so much a homecoming, but rather a re-examination of ideals and values she had held so dear, primarily those associated with her father, Atticus, whose participation in certain community events leads Jean Louise to question and as her Uncle Jack Finch puts it, reducing her father to 'the status of a human being'. Which is also what 'Paper Towns' is all about. Margo and Q have drifted apart as they've grown older, Margo having joined the 'cool' clique and developed even more of a mystique about her: becoming, yes, your classic Manic Pixie Girl sort. The main meat of the film concerns her disappearance from her hometown. Q, having unexpectedly gone on a 'revenge spree' on friends who'd betrayed her the night before she dashes off and consequently, the last person to see her, begins a journey to not only find Margo, but to gradually realise that she's not the symbol he sees her as, but just another girl in her own right, finding her way in the world, but with the façade of a zany, quirky enigma.

Cara Delevingne plays Margo wonderfully. What could've been just another gratuitous PR move pays dividends as it turns out Delevinge's not only a thoroughly engaging public personality, she's got real acting chops. She's obviously got down the whole kooky, fun-loving mischief-maker down to every tic, and the chemistry she generates with Woolf in their prank scenes (shaving off a jock's eyebrows, snapping a pic of a cheating ex-boyfriend in the nude) is really quite magical. She just has this natural charisma about her that's just the right amount, so as to make her both a throroughly entertaining character to watch, but also an approachable one whom you can make sense of why Woolf's Q falls for her so. Yet she's even better at nailing down what lies beneath the skin. She doesn't have that much screentime overall, but she is pitch perfect in each of the quieter moments where she shows the deeper insecurities and frustrations, and hinting at her desire to break free. It's astonishingly subtle work that works incredibly well for the film, and I can't wait to see what she dabs her hand into next. Woolf too, is very good in a much more understated and consequently, much more likable portrayal of a geeky kid than 'The Faults in Our Stars'. He carries the film admirably whenever Delevinge's offscreen, and is also helped by the good work of Austin Abrams and Justice Smith as his two BFF's Ben and Radar, who join him for a road trip to find Margo. The former is an amusingly crass comic relief, and the latter a nicely attuned straight man, with some good chemistry with his onscreen girlfriend Jaz Sinclair. Halston Sage is also pretty moving as the seemingly superficial Lacey, Margo's best friend, and perhaps gives most weight to the whole central question of whether Margo deserves all her friends' efforts. Much in the same way I questioned, halfway through 'Go Set a Watchman': does Atticus Finch deserve all the love and pride Scout had in him, and which Jean Louise fights to retain, despite his less than savoury hypocrisy twenty years on from the events of TKAM?

The beautifully nuanced cadences of Harper Lee's prose reads as smoothly as ever, but nevertheless 'Go Set a Watchman' is an unsparing read. Characters we've grown to love die, or even worse, become antagonized, seen in an entirely different light. It's only after reading the book that I realised it was all very much the intention of Lee to generate this effect on the reader. Like Q, who must realise that Margo isn't responsible to guide him in life, and learn to treasure not the idealised conception of her, but rather the friendship they had, Jean Louise must accept that her father, while imperfect in his ways, as a man simply trying to right wrongs in any way possible, at the cost of destroying not the illusions, but the visions of her childhood. He's still an icon to Jean Louise; a shattered one, moulded as such by 20 years on, the various controversies of the South, but retaining that original strength of character that believed in the living, breathing realities of the law and court. Both 'Paper Towns' and 'Go Set a Watchman' will frustrate viewers/readers in different ways, but push through and you'll find something genuinely cathartic. Our original conceptions of Atticus Finch and Margo Roth Spieglman may be tainted, but in the process we perhaps gain a fuller understanding not just of the flaws, but the potential for even greater strength by both characters in trying to rectify these faults.

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