‘The Fault in Our Stars’ has finally entered movie theaters. John Green’s novel tells the powerful love story of Hazel (Shailene Woodley) and Augustus (Ansel Elgort), two teenagers with cancer. His book is a worldwide bestseller and one of my favorites. ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ has the potential to be a depressing movie about cancer and death. However, the cast and crew did a wonderful job of staying true to Green’s well-written story and blended in humor and love with the more serious themes of death and sickness.
I had very high expectations for this movie and was nervous that I would be let down. Luckily, the movie not only met my high expectations, but completely surpassed them. Green’s novel features a cast of strong characters and the casting brought all of them to life. Between ‘Divergent’, ‘The Fault in Our Stars’, ‘The Spectacular Now’, and her other movies, Shailene Woodley has proven that she has the talent to portray any kind of character. She embodied Hazel’s story and brought her to life. Despite Ansel’s strong performance in ‘Divergent’, I was unsure about his portrayal of Gus before I saw the movie. I am delighted to say that he completely proved me wrong and was perfect for the role of Augustus Waters. Ansel was the perfect blend of confident, relatable, caring, sweet, and a normal teenage guy. Nat Wolff was great as Isaac, a teenager struggling with eye cancer. He provided many of the comedic moments in the movie (including the egg throwing scene and breakup scene) and was a strong addition to the cast. Overall, the cast is what made ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ live up to so many expectations.
One of the problems with most movies based of off YA books is that the story strays from the beloved original story. ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ team of Josh Boone, Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber, and Wyck Godfrey, stayed true to John green’s novel and that made all the difference in the magic of the movie. Any fan of the book should be thrilled with ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ movie. I felt like all of the important scenes were there and that any changes made to fit the story into a movie format did not detract from the overall story. I was moved to both laughter and tears during the movie. Fans of the book will also recognize the much of the dialogue comes straight from the book, including many of the fan-favorite quotes.
Overall, I was very pleased with ‘The Fault in Our Stars.’ I left the movie theater smiling, glad to see that Hollywood didn’t stray from such a difficult topic as teenage cancer, but instead embraced it and brought Hazel and Augustus’s story to life.. Skeptics should know that this movie focuses on the positive aspects of life, and not on the idea of death or sickness. I would recommend it to all fans of the book, as well as those who haven’t read the book. The movie has unavoidable hints of sadness but the story of teenage love is powerful and absolutely worth seeing.
Rating: 9/10
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If you’re a TFIOS fan: Check out my Top 6 Scenes to Look Forward to in ‘The Fault in Our Stars!’
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