Finally, a movie for those that were begging for some teenage romance with their nihilism?
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“The Fault In Our Stars” follows Hazel and Gus, two teens whose relationship starts in a Cancer support group and how they choose to deal with the journeys and trials of not only living with a disease, but of living with love. Based on a best selling novel and starring Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, who strangely enough both also starred in the teen novel adaptation “Divergent” together as well the movie tries to capture the nuances and depth of life, love, humor, death, and being a teenager, and somehow for the most part succeeds.
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I think I liked “The Fault in Our Stars”, or if nothing else enjoyed spending time with the characters in this thought provoking story. Two things I’m not necessarily used to in these tween adaptations. (I’m still trying to shake the nightmare of Endless Love from my soul). But this one is ok. Woodley and Elgort are engaging, likable, and really fun. Not only that but they are given some really meaty stuff to chew on. The movie grapples with worldviews not usually seen in these kind of films, topics like meaninglessness, chance, and if hope is valuable. The philosophical stuff here is worth thinking about as we each deal with our own mortality. I’m much more partial to hope and faith than where this story leads, but it’s a reminder that we all grapple with these things and to be sensitive to the journey that others around us are having rather than repeating pat answers meant to cover up pain. Weighty stuff for sure, and yet it goes at it with such a great sense of humor, joining 50/50 in that elusive film genre category of “Cancer Comedy”. In fact, thought that real sense of humor was the best thing. Sure much of it was Gallows humor, but I really thought much of it was clever, fun, and I found myself at least smiling through much of the proceedings.
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The movie isn’t perfect though, and falls into many of the same traps of the teenage romance, primarily being that it’s just so sappy at times. I mean, I get it, that’s what that audience might want, but I think it can steal some of the reality to your story, especially in a movie that seems to be about how those things are often cloying and shallow. The writer in this case seems to want to have it both ways, a world that faces the reality of pain, but also still has the puppy dog cuddles, and ooey, gooey romance. Sure, life is filled with both pain and pleasure, but when you stretch reality to serve the good stuff your schmaltz runs the risk of tainting your truth.
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Overall, “The Fault In Our Stars” is a well done, powerful, and surprising funny look into struggling with life and death. Though I didn’t find any fault in it’s stars, who both gave great performances, I did find fault in it’s inconsistent story enough to bring it down to a still solid B.
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