The Fault in Our Stars: The Faults in our Cancer Drama

Based off of John Green's(Looking For Alaska) novel with the same title; The Fault in Our Stars focuses on a young girl, Shailene Woodley (The Descendants, Divergent), who has thyroid cancer and is forced to go to a support group by her parents. Through the support group she meets a boy, Ansel Elgort (Divergent), who is in remission and lost his leg in his own battle with cancer. Although this film's target demographic is teenage girls it sure reaches out to everyone by focusing on cancer. There is an instant connection between Hazel (Woodley) and Gus (Elgort), their chemistry is near perfect throughout the movie. The narrative pushes us past the stages of being diagnosed with cancer and opens with Hazel already having cancer, this is something most cancer dramas don't do. Woodley and Elgort carry themselves well and really keep the movie going, though there are some great performances by Willem Dafoe(Spider-Man) who is in the film for one scene and Nat Wolff(Stuck in Love) who had a cancerous tumor on his eye. I will give the movie the praise that it deserves however there are some issues at hand and one glaring fault. Cancer is something that has, is, or will affect everyone at some point in time and cancer is not pretty. Josh Boone's story avoids the hazards of cancer and such by taking a leg away from one character or an eye from another thinking it will make up for not showing the atrocities that come with cancer (this problem has more to do with the source material rather than the film itself). Along with that, it seems as though every other scene is trying to make the viewer sad rather than let the audience understand the sadness themselves. Perhaps not the best cancer drama I've seen (50/50), and perhaps not the best teen romance I've seen (The Spectacular Now, also starring Shailene Woodley), but certainly the best of the two combined. Driven by a strong narrative, perfect pacing, and a near perfect script, albeit with some bugs, The Fault in Our Stars will certainly dampen your mood but also leave you hopeful and optimistic.

7/10