The Fault in Our Stars film review

DIRECTOR : JOSH BOONE

CAST : SHAILENE WOODLEY, ANSEL ELGORT ,
NAT WOLFF, LAURA DER
Shailene Woodley plays Hazel, a teenage cancer patient, whose thyroid
lesions have metastasised to her lungs; her condition, once gravely
critical, has stabilised due to experimental drug treatment, but she has
to wheel around a portable oxygen tank. In the support group that her
mom (Laura Dern) forces her to attend, Hazel catches the eye of Gus
(Ansel Elgort), a cute boy, whose osteosarcoma condition is also
stabilised after the amputation of one leg, although this is mostly
concealed under his jeans.
Life-affirming Gus likes to have an unlit cigarette in his mouth to show
his existential defiance. Despite being such an obvious hottie, Gus is a
virgin. Hazel's own condition in this respect is apparently so self-evident
that she never says it out loud. Hazel is obsessed with a novel called An
Imperial Affliction with a bafflingly abrupt ending, all about a girl dying
of cancer, written by a reclusive author called Peter van Houten.
Impulsive, entrancing Gus whisks her and her mom off to Amsterdam to
meet her hero, and it is a journey that is to bring their relationship to a
crisis.
The title is taken from Cassius in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "The fault,
dear Brutus, is not in our stars/ But in ourselves, that we are
underlings." Perhaps getting cancer was written in the stars for them,
but Hazel and Gus realise that it is "in themselves" to do something in
response, up to them to make the best of life. That's fair enough. And
perhaps therapeutic escapism is the point of The Fault in Our Stars
although Hazel claims that it is the real thing. This prettified cancer
fantasy comes nowhere near.
As is always the case with book-to-film adaptations, Greens source
material has been snipped down a bit to fit into a nifty two-hour
package, and while most of the cut chunks arent missed .Greens book
is beloved by the younger set, and it occasionally feels as if the film is
pandering to a teen-skewing audience, with bubbly text messages and
on-screen emails frequently popping up, and a mismatched soundtrack
thats heavy on popular acts and light on the kind of songs that add
appropriate emotion .
However ,the film has enough charm and humor to keep it appealing
and dumbing things down doesnt feel particularly smart or canny, and
proves to be a minor distraction to an otherwise majorly entertaining
feature.