An Ode to The Fault In Our Stars
About a couple of years ago, I mindlessly picked up a rather brightly bound novel in the hopes to expand my library. That book was The Fault In Our Stars. And THAT was a blatant lie. In fact, over a year ago, I joined Tumblr. The furore surrounding this book and the bespectacled excitable author, John Green, filled my dashboard and I had to give in to the hype. I wasn’t disappointed. Truly my soul ached, my heart poured and the book no longer exists from dissolving in my floods of tears. I had just read a rather frank but bitterly exquisite story about teenagers with cancer. And I devoured their epic yet poetic sorrow. When they announced a film would come out, I was met with an immediate scare and pleasure. Could the film do justice to the book?
Yes, yes it can.
See, I’ve just left the movie theatre in some kind of trembling mess only equalled by the emotional turmoil faced when I closed that brightly bound book. As were the people following me, dabbing their eyes and diluting their sodas similarly to me. Now by this second paragraph, the usual people who flock to my blog will be thinking, “hey, this isn’t the culty goodness I’d been expecting and I don’t come to this blog to talk about the latest young adult teenie bopper flick.” And that’s cool, we’ll get to how this particular story has transcended later on. It is against my usual fare but I cater to cinematic passion here; I allow myself to devour it in any form. When a film enters my life, slides down my back in shivers and touches my heart, I feel compelled to write about it. Nor do I usually indulge myself so personally in my reviews, so think of this as an ode to the creators rather than your usually two-bit cut up.
I am also in trepidation (because I am a wuss) as there has been equal scorn behind the scenes of the phenomenal book and now the roar from the movie. I have witnessed venomous tongues against the author, his understandable excitability and misjudged tweets to the masses. With every movie comes backlash, I suppose, it is an inevitability of life and art. And while we are here digging out the iffy stuff, I want to remove this article away from certain feminist comments that have come about due to nativity. After all it is not about that.
I want to deal with the story at hand. It tells the tale of seventeen year old Hazel Grace Lancaster, diagnosed since 13 with a terminal cancer. Her illness means she has to have constant care, carrying around an oxygen pack to help her breathing. After her mother and doctor diagnose her with depression, she is encouraged to attend a support group and that is where she meets Augustus Waters, an 18 year old boy who had recovered from cancer. Initial stand offs eventually lead to friendship and love as they navigate not only their feelings but their debilitating illness.
Straight off that paragraph, you may feel that for the hopes of titillation and emotional exploitation, the makers behind the tale have added the illness, especially shoving the pair into the Anne Frank Museum for their first kiss. Yet, taking a step back from the politics of cancer, death and genocide, Boone and in equal respects Green, never falter from handling the topic with care. And not care with patronising smiles, kid gloves and the “I’m sorry’s” you get from well-meaners with a lack of understanding. It is this genuine and realistic portrayal of people living life with death looming over. Deviating not too far from the “cancer ridden children is sad, hmm kay,” feel, Boone decides to focus on these very likeable characters that never truly ask for your pity. It’s an interesting spin and heart that allows these dying teenagers to breathe and have emotions untangled in the tube.
Which relies very much on the stellar acting of the young thespians involved. Though many will know Shailene Woodley’s face from the Divergent series, those who admired her in debut The Descendents would be aware of her earnest and poignant way of handling emotions. Here as Hazel, she wonderfully entwines a sarcastic backbone masking pain, hope and sorrow all in one that the character feels genuine. Charismatic and powerfully acted, Woodley triumphs as Hazel which may be a career defining role. And excellent anchoring beside her is Nat Woolf as Isaac, the couples best friend and Laura Dern as her outstanding mother.
Yet, while in many ways this is a great performance by Woodley, this is very much Ansel Elgort’s movie. As Augustus, he may seem like he is played as a white knight in Hazel’s life, but he has charm and goofiness as well as accurately debilitating and portraying the mess too. He doesn’t over saturate the role with heroism but tenderly cares and it is astonishing. Elgort does not act, he emphasises and transforms into Waters that it takes a very shaky few moments after the movie for you to settle into realism that this is all fiction. It’s heart-breakingly wonderful,l touchingly wretched and a lot of that boils down to Elgort’s maddening talent to enthuse Gus with a likeability unmeasured.
The point of The Fault In Our Stars may seem frustratingly obvious and many will watch, roll their eyes and scoff at yet another Young Adult drama trotted out for the hormonal crowd rushing into their cinemas. (And yes, it does adequately adapt the book well, for Green fans.) But cancer is something that will probably touch everyone in their lives and possibly already has. While the disease has entered my life twice, once in such a heart-breaking away that I still believe I was a little too young and naïve to deal with it, I cannot whole-heartedly sit here and say that this is exactly how it is. However, I have dealt (and deal) with illness in different ways and I can’t help but feel that this is a consistent and unnervingly realistic, if over sentimental, film. And if anything, it will leave you with a sense of compassion and make you appreciate your loved ones more.
No, scratch that.
It will make you appreciate your life a little bit more.
And if Boone, Green, Woodley, Elgort, Wolff, and Dern entered into this project with that in mind, then I can see no fault here.
Bravo
TTFN
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