Having a life threatening illness is not something you write about. Usually the people that do such a thing keep it a pretty somber and private story and don’t throw in any sort of humor. How we cope with illness, like everything in life comes down to the individual. When John Green wrote his novel “The Fault in Our Stars” he took a different path in his story about illness and added just the right amount of humor.
Hazel Grace (Shailene Woodley) has been sick most of her teenage life. Having accepted the inevitable, Hazel has decided to limit the number of people she could possibly hurt and not make many friends. Her Mother (Laura Dern) and Father (Sam Trammell) force her to attend a support group, in order for her to make friends. While always unwilling to participate, on one visit she runs into Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort), who instantly is smitten with Hazel. They become friends, sharing with each other the things they love, Hazel, her favorite novel and Augustus, his confidence. It doesn’t take much to see that Hazel and Augustus have a thing for each other, but Hazel is reluctant because of her fear of hurting Augustus, if something should happen to her. That changes when Augustus uses his wish for being a sick kid on a trip to meet the author of Hazel’s favorite book, in order for her to find out what happens after the end of the story.
Everybody falls in love, so a story about two sick kids who fall in love should be told. Telling it the right way and making it entertaining is the hard part. John Green did his part and made a touching story with that will make you laugh and cry. Adapting the story for the big screen is Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (500 Days of Summer), who know a thing or two about young love from their previous work. The trick is always taking a well loved novel and not having its fans hate you for what you happen to change, well mission accomplished. It is easy to picture Woodley and Elgort as Hazel and Augustus, they become those characters. Though missing some of the humor from the novel, it never takes away from the heart of the story, a story that will leave you drying your eyes more than a few times. Not from sadness, but just from the plain beauty of a story that gets so many things right. You should grab that one you love and a few tissues and go and see this movie, because if you miss a film this good, it would be your fault.
Brian Taylor
