Review of The Fault in Our Stars (2014) by Dan Chi T — 09 Nov 2014

Diffrentiating itself from other dull romantic dramas, The Fault In Our Stars is undoubtedly one of the year's best offerings.

The film tells the story of a young teenager called Hazel Lancaster, who has terminal cancer and has seemingly ran out of faith in life until she met the love of her life, Gus. The film opens with a powerful monologue from Hazel, telling about how to tell a sad story like her own. As her boring and waiting for death life seemed endless, she stumbled upon a six abs, confident, young, handsome, basketball champion, talkative and NEC Gus (which is the reason why he is still a virgin) at a cancer support group. Their romantic and equally depressing love story begins here.

As weeks pass, Gus and Hazel developed a will-they-won't-they relationship with ups and downs, with the both sharing a passionate love for the cancer-based book An Imperial Affliction. They both wanted to go and ask the writer, Peter Van Houten, about the faith of the remaining characters, although Hazel's condition made it seem impossible. During a picnic, Gus told Hazel about the fact that he had ask the Genies, a Make-A-Wish group for both of them to go to Amsterdam and talk to Van Houten, which had already been arranged by his assistant.

The two were set to go, when Hazel had a fluid overload in her lungs, and was forced to stay. She tried to avoid Gus for a while, in order not to hurt him, but eventually, the two's daily developed feelings would reconcile them once more. Hazel's mother surprised her when she told Hazel that they will go to Amsterdam. Now, the climax lies in Amsterdam and the twist lies in Amsterdam, so one advice: grab your tissues, cause this ain't no Bridget Jones.

The film, if to say the least, is flawlessly done, although the negative side will be mainly about the editing department. It cut out too many crucial parts from the book that highlighted the main character's struggle with cancer, and in the process, kind of reduce the whole drama and mainly focusing on romantic-emotions more. It's a gut puncher, cause it did hurt the film when you rewatch it, then you'll get the "Oh, flawed" impact.

But, it's still flawlessly done. Everything is near perfection, starting with the script. The Fault In Our Stars is not a relatively easy book to adapt, considering the fact that it's the feelings that are the most impressive. But boy, did it soar. It did a wonderful job in capturing the film's impeccability and strong emotions in a joyful and sadness mixture, which resulted in an impressive effort, boasting even more risk of the character's life, while also portraying some humorous dialogue. The film wouldn't be all that great without the powerful score, which is both strong and emotional at the same time.

And of course, what is the film without the cast's performance. All of the castings were spot on, although Isaac might be a bit different in appearance. But no difference does it make in an already emotional film that inspired a thousand women's Tumblr post. The supporting cast was great, with Laura Dern as the kindful mother, Willem Dafoe as the drunken bastard Van Houten, Nat Wolff as blind and scene stealer Isaac, and more on the credits about Ansel Elgort's breakout performance as the talented and emotional Gus, showing some of his unknown talents (Divergent doesn't count). But of course, in a typical manner, the spotlight would belong to Shailene Woodley. What will Hazel be if Shailene wouldn't play that role ? Not bad, but not as emotional as it would be now. Shailene really outdid herself and surprised everyone with her mature and equally depressed turn as the character, showing a great deal of character's depth. Don't be surprised if she ended up with an Oscar nominee (although that's just a slight alternative).

One of the best romantic dramas I have ever seen. 96/100, because yes, John Green's cameo was really crap.