Review of The Fault in Our Stars (2014) by Foxgrove — 24 Jun 2014

Intrinsically dishonest whilst purporting to be the definitive truth about living and dying with cancer. This is objectionable on nearly every level. Based on a best selling book it can claim as its own a lead female character who is, oh so, with it and everyone calls her by, not one, but two names- Hazel Grace, if you will! It also has a cool male lead and we know this because he goes around with an unlit cigarette between his teeth as a metaphor for life and death. So far, so vomit inducing, and that's just for starters. The screenplay and dialogue is so saccharine that diabetes sufferers should steer well clear.

Shailene Woodley, reminding one of a young Debra Winger in her manner, is obviously capable of handling better material, but is only ok under such unfair circumstances. However, in the male lead Ansel Elgort is just annoying. The film is also desperately overlong and the scenes involving Willem Dafoe just don't work at all. We are also treated to an embarrassing first kiss between the two leads in the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam, which actually has the other visitors applauding and tips the film into bathos.

The lack of empathy one feels for the characters is also underlined by a syrupy score and some of the worst songs to be heard in a film for quite some time. At one point Woodley says that a nurse once asked her on a scale of 1-10 where she would rate her pain. I would have to disagree with her 9 and say my pain level was at the 10 mark. This is the sort of film you wish they didn't make anymore and the critics that have praised it, enticing my viewing, leave me baffled.