User Reviews

"The Fault in Our Stars" is one of the most talked about films from last year and this over 2-hour-long film won big at several awards shows that were mostly aimed at younger audiences. It is the second directorial effort by Josh Boone and the writing came from the team that worked on "(500) Days of Summer". Lead actress is Shailene Woodley and her male co-lead is played by Ansel Elgort. The supporting cast includes Oscar nominees like Laura Dern and Willem Dafoe. This movie is about a woman suffering from cancer, but that's really just the background story. With the Big C always present, we get to watch how she spends her final months with friends and family.

Woodley is truly outstanding in the lead and there is no denying that she easily belongs to the most talented actresses from her age group. She took a break from acting between 2007 and 2011, but returned by holding her own against Hollywood star George Clooney in the Oscar-winning "The Descendants" and since then it's been a triumphant walk for her leading several movies. This one here is just another great addition to her résumé. Unfortunately, I am not too big on Ansel Elgort here. There is something pretty off-putting about him on several occasions. I am not sure if it's the way the character was written, his (mediocre) acting or a combination of both. In any case, he looked really weak compared to Woodley and I can't see him carry a movie that runs for over 2 hours and he is in it for 1.5 hours pretty much. I rarely had the impression I was watching a genuine character instead of a performance.

The script is fine for the most part. Sometimes it gets into territory in which it feels it sacrifices realism for a sob story, but that's fine as it only is maybe 2 or 3 times. I think in terms of the subject, this still could have been much more authentically emotional, but what the writers came up with isn't a failure either. I did not know Dafoe was in this film, but I enjoyed his short performance. I honestly did not need the second part of his cameo near the end as it was nowhere near as memorable as his first couple scenes. All in all, I cannot agree with the critics and awards bodies who really loved this movie. Still, I believe this is a decent watch. It's just that I would not put it anywhere near my favorite 2014 movies. My favorite cancer-themed film of all time is still "A Walk to Remember". But back to this one: Shailene Woodley is very much outstanding in here. Too bad she is the only real reason to check it out.

The reason I am rating this a 1 is to combat the insane 8.2 rating that this terrible movie has.

I'm a 17 year old girl, and most people would assume someone my age would fall head over heels for a movie like this. I watched expecting to see this amazingly realistic, incomparable, and tragically beautiful love story, which is how TFIOS had been described to me. After spending two hours watching this movie, I'm sitting here wondering if I'm made of stone considering I did not shed a single tear. But several movies I have watched, and stories I have read, have left me sobbing and attempting to recover for days. I have never read the book, or any of John Green's books for that matter but now I will forever hold the opinion that he is a fully grown man attempting to articulate not only the life of a teenage girl, but the life of someone suffering with a disease. The first few lines of the movie, narrated by Hazel, made me know I was going to hate this movie, since she was describing things that happened in cliché romance stories (which is exactly what this is), and how this was "true." The idea that this movie was realistic is ridiculous. First of all, a few token one-liners in the movie were clever and well written, but would never come out of a teenager's mouth. As a teenager myself, I can confirm that we are not that profound. I didn't understand the appeal that either of the main characters had in the other, other than the fact they both had cancer. Hazel was boring, and selfish, and self-pitying, and Gus was so pretentious it made me feel sick, and I never believed for a second that he was a virgin. Of course cancer is a terrible thing, as is death itself, but the fact that I didn't care about either of them, and saw them as a caricature of what John Green thinks or wants teenagers with cancer to act like, made me completely indifferent to their predictable demise. The story line with them going to Amsterdam to visit the author of their favorite book was annoying and unnecessary. Although the author was painted as this terrible person, I actually agreed everything that came out of his mouth about Hazel. I'm pretty sure the whole point of that scene was to say "hey, what can we do to make this movie even more depressing? I know, let's take the one thing that the main character cares about and destroy it, in order to make her completely dependent on her love interest." There's too many complaints I have about specific eye-roll inducing lines and scenes in this movie to even remember, but the one that angered me more than anything was when they went to the Anne Frank house. First, they tried to compare the horrible death of Anne Frank and her family, which was an outcome of the most horrible thing that has happened in human history, to these teenagers dying with cancer. As soon as they reached the top floor of the house, paying attention only to Hazel struggling to climb the stairs, in my mind I started thinking "please make them be respectful. I swear, if Gus tries to crack a self-righteous joke I will punch my laptop screen." At first, I was pleasantly surprised, because they were quiet and solemn, but then, they begin making out... Only to make it worse, everyone in the room begins clapping. Why? If I was there, I would be furious at their lack of respect. I can only hope this scene wasn't filmed in the actual house. Towards the end I was constantly checking the bar at the bottom of my screen to see how long I had left. I kept thinking, when is this really sad part coming that will make me cry? and when the credits started rolling, I realized it never would. The fact that people are describing this piece of trash as the best movie they have ever seen boggles my mind. I'm assuming it's the first movie they have ever seen. If you want to watch a realistic romance movie, you won't find it here. Don't waste your time.

It is nearly impossible to make a film about terminal illness and not make it heartfelt. The Fault in Our Stars has its heart in the right place but – WOW! – you walk out wishing that someone would shake the dust and clutter and broken fragments off the screenplay so it can flow with more efficiency. Here is a movie that is so busy being profound that the characters feel trapped by plot gimmicks and stale dialogue.

Based on the bestselling book by John Greene, the movie stars the talented Shailene Woodly as Hazel Grace Lancaster, a teenager with Stage 4 thyroid cancer with metastasis forming in her lungs. She's been living with this disease since she was 13, and now she lugs around an oxygen tank with a nasal cannula. Hazel is distant, a bit surly and more than a little bit cynical about the world. In other words, she's a normal teenager. Her parents force her to attend a cancer survivor support group that is led by an overly emotional group leader who begins each session by unrolling a large rug with a big – and somewhat unnerving – picture of Jesus on it.

One day in group she meets Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort), a fellow teen who confidently announces that he is suffering from osteosarcoma which has already claimed the lower part of his right leg. He's a nice guy that Hazel meet-cutes when she bumps into him in the hallway. There is little resistance from either side as to how they feel about one another and in the blink of an eye, they fall in love.

That's more or less all that you need to know. The connection between Hazel and Augustus is not really built on chemistry but on the fact that they both suffer from terminal illness. The movie doesn't have the flow of real life, but is built on conventions of the plot. Everything in their relationship is calculated for effect, we get gimmicks instead of narrative. For example, Augustus carries around a pack of cigarettes and occasionally puts one in his mouth. Hazel is disgusted but Augustus offers this explanation: "They don't kill you unless you light them. And I've never lit one. It's a metaphor, see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do its killing. A metaphor." That's fine, but the sight of Augustus with the cigarette in his mouth looks as ridiculous as it sounds. He puts the unlit cigarette in his mouth so often that we want to take his away from him and say "STOP THAT!!" The movie is loaded with strange moments like that. There is an odd subplot about a book that Hazel has read over and over by a mysterious author named Peter Van Haughton who has apparently disappeared into seclusion somewhere in Amsterdam. After a long and pointless series of arguments with doctors and with Hazel's parent, she and Augustus accept an invitation to fly to Amsterdam to meet him. Van Haughton is played in an angry performance by Willem DeFoe that seems shoe-horned in as if he were visiting from a different movie.

Worse is what comes next. Hazel and Augustus visit Anne Frank's house. Naturally, Hazel has trouble climbing the series of steep staircases. When she reaches the famous attic, there is little to no attention paid to the fact that they are in Anne Frank's famous hiding place. Instead, the scene climaxes with Hazel and Augustus's first kiss, to which all the strangers around them begin to applaud.

The movie never really deals with the issue of what it is like to live with cancer, or the inevitability that it will claim your life. The dialogue lightly dances around these issues but no one ever gets serious about discussing them. They know they're going to die but neither Augustus nor Hazel ever get down to the serious business of discussing what lies on the other side. Augustus talks a lot about "oblivion", which indicates that he is an atheist, but the movie doesn't go there. We know from the beginning that one or both characters will face the final curtain before the movie is over, but the film's final act is a long – very long – series of slow passages about eulogies and final wishes that goes on and on and on. It should be moving us to tears but you find yourself checking your watch instead.

Hazel informs us in the beginning that "Pain deserves to be felt." We agree, but the movie could do with a lot more pain and a lot less catharsis. The characters talk and talk and talk and talk, but nothing they have to say has any real meaning. Death is the inevitability of this story, but there's such a long and drawn-out funerary tone to the film's third act that is tinged with so much hope and finality that it feels like the happiest sad ending you've ever seen.

This review is originally from my blog Derpy Reviews, www.derpyreviews.blogspot.com to see more FioS news, reviews and giveaways, email subscribe to Derpy Reviews and friend me on GoodReads www.goodreads.com/DerpyReviewsTeam

The Fault in our Stars, where to start. Great book, fantastic movie. The emotion of the actors made John Greens New York Times Best Seller, real. They brought depth to our pages, they brought emotion to our dripping eyes, and they brought warmth to our hearts.

The movie is about a teenage girl who has terminal lung cancer, she was saved by a experimental treatment when she was younger. Now as she is older, her parents feel that she is suffering from depression which is, as Hazel describes it a "side affect of dying." Her parents encourage her to go to a cancer support group where she meets Agustus Waters, ex-cancer carrier and minus one leg. Soon Hazel and Gus find themselves head over heels planning to love each other until oblivion ultimately catches up with them.

A "sick love story"

The actors casted for these roles were amazing. Shailene, played Hazel flawlessly, she was smart, and funny and cold just as Hazel was. Ansel, was equally amazing, his amazing humor and timing made this movie! The amazing actors and actresses combined with the entire crew, the way the movie was filmed is just inviting, and they way text messages and emails were displayed will start a new movie trend.

Some call it a tear jerker, some revolutionary, but me, I call it a spectacularly made masterpiece. You will laugh and you will cry. And some parts will send those magical shivers down your spine.

I would recommend this movie to... Any reader of the Fault in our Stars Anyone looking for a fantastic movie A guy who wants a romantic movie for two, that he may enjoy himself A girl who wants to just cry through an entire movie Someone who wants to see a spectacularly made masterpiece

"Okay"

Without me blabbering on, I would like to give my complements to John Green and his Team. The Fault In Our Stars is a fantastic book which has a really sad ending (I'm not going to say it to you). As the quote says "Some Infinities are bigger than others" however, Hazel and Gus's love was quite an extraordinary one. It must of been hard living with Cancer. The book was different, but it still had the same story to the film but with more parts. I got the book after the film came out so my book has the photos in it. I have to say I did cry at the end but I couldn't stop blabbering through the film. Too be honest, Hazel Grace has inspired me. Not everything in life is perfect and people are dying, this book showed the good and bad sides to cancer.

Like the book says, pain demands to be felt. It touched my sad side. This book is one of the best. Thank you.

I wanted to really love this movie, I heard people rave about it. It's good, not great in my opinion. It is a touching love story but overall a bit too contrived. I mean, we know from practically minute one that someone will die by the end. I thought the Europe trip was sweet and lovely. Oh and I loved the soundtrack too--thought the songs used were beautiful. But I can't get over certain parts of this movie that were just weird/strange/over-the-top. First, as others have pointed out the scene in the Anne Frank house where Gus and Hazel kiss for the first time and everyone claps. Oh my gosh, really??? I actually said that out loud to my friend while watching this. Come on, how on earth do total strangers know (or care, even) that that's their first kiss??? I'm still shaking my head at that part. And the writer they visit because they love his book so much. I don't really know what was the point of that subplot. It goes nowhere because the writer is rude to them, then they all start yelling and Gus & Hazel leave. What? They accomplish nothing. And speaking of the writer--I'm so tired of the stereotype that artists/writers/etc are depressed, MAJOR loners, dependant on alcohol or drugs and are just plain weird. I'm a visual artist and I don't appreciate this crazy stereotype. You could tell from practically the instant Gus and Hazel meet the writer at his home that it's not going to go well. And how he randomly shows up at the funereal is just weird and creepy. I mean, he came all the way from Europe, who would do that?? Of course he tries to be nice to Hazel and explain stuff and she just screams at him. Again, nothing is accomplished with this scene. What's the point? I know he gives her the letter but still--could have been a better & more believable scene. And the last scene I can't get my head around is the part where they show up (in broad daylight!!!) to throw eggs at the (gorgeous green!) car of the one guy's ex. Seriously--this part bothers me to no end. The woman comes out of the house, sees the eggy car and-- just GOES BACK INSIDE??!!!! Ummmm, what about calling the cops or at least threatening to?? Especially after Gus tells her this is basically revenge. The kids don't seem to get in the slightest trouble at all for doing this to the (beautiful green!) car. I have seriously mixed feelings about this movie. I'd give the book a shot though, generally I find the books are better than the movies they're based on.

I honestly can't imagine how anyone with a sense of good writing, good directing, or good acting could ever think this movie is entertaining past the humor of its flaws. Do you people have brains? These actors may as well have had the script in their hands while shooting. It would have made no difference. The only impressive "skills" displayed came when the girl cries after AUGUSTUS (so pretentious)passes away.

The only thing that kept me engaged in this movie after I had started watching was the curiosity of which one dies first. There were points when I was rooting for the death of them together just so the movie would end.

This review isn't coming from someone heartless. I admit that I teared up when Hazel bawls her eyes out, but that doesn't make the movie good. That just means I sympathize with someone who is crying. That says nothing about the quality of the film.

What happened IMDb? I can usually trust your ratings. I've never written a review here before but when I saw that this was higher than an 8, I had to say something.

This is a weak tearjerker for the weak-minded.