{Movie Review} The Fault In Our Stars

The Fault In Our Stars
Release Date: June 6, 2014
Director: Josh Boone
Starring: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort
Rating: PG-13
Run Time: 125 mins

Book / Trailer / IMDb

Hazel and Gus are two teenagers who share an acerbic wit, a disdain for the conventional, and a love that sweeps them on a journey. Their relationship is all the more miraculous given that Hazel's other constant companion is an oxygen tank, Gus jokes about his prosthetic leg, and they met and fell in love at a cancer support group.

 

I wrote this review 2 hours after seeing the movie

 

 

Non-Spoiler Review

My thoughts are like stars I can’t fathom into constellations.  I don’t know how to put into words what this movie made me feel and how amazing it is.  This is one of the best book-to-movie adaptations I have ever seen, maybe even the best (with Catching Fire a close second).  There were so many quotes from the book, which makes sense because the book is so full of beautiful and unique dialogue, and if you didn’t put that beautiful writing into the movie it wouldn’t feel right.  The dialogue was what made us love the characters so much in the book.  This movie made me cry tears of joy and tears of pain.  But pain demands to be felt.  I knew what to expect because I’ve read the book about 5 times now, but I was in no way prepared for the emotion of seeing my favorite characters come to life.  It was so painful.  The movie followed the book story line so closely and the few things they changed were so funny or amazing that it didn't even matter.  A fabulous movie!

 

Hands down, the best performance goes to Ansel Elgort.  His role in Divergent really doesn’t allow him to showcase his amazing acting skills.  He brought to life one of my favorite characters so well.  It was perfect casting, first off, but he acted the part perfectly.  It also doesn’t hurt that he is EXTREMELY attractive.  God damn, not only do I have a crush on his character, but I also have a crush on him!  He was so sweet and adorable and loving and sexy in this movie.  He did an outstanding job.

I’m not sure how I feel about Shailene Woodley as an actress and while I don’t think she did as well as Ansel with her character, I still think she did very well.  Shailene is the perfect Hazel, I just felt like Shailene’s performance wasn’t up to par with Ansel’s.  But that in no way takes away from the fact that Shailene did an awesome job with Hazel.

I have to talk a bit about the relationship between Hazel and Augustus and the chemistry between Shailene and Ansel.  Reading and seeing are two very, very different things.  I saw this romance.  It is even more beautiful on-screen then it is in the pages of the book (not that the book romance isn’t beautiful too.  The on-screen is a different kind of beautiful, if that makes sense).  The chemistry between Ansel and Shailene was perfect, and the love between the two characters they played was so heartfelt and beautiful.  I really have to applaud both actors on their performances.

I really want to mention Nat Wolf as Isaac.  Even though he wasn’t in the movie much, when he was, he was freaking hilarious.  First off, Nat Wolf is the PERFECT Isaac.  He has the look, the personality, everything.  I just really wish there had been more blind jokes from Augustus.  I loved the trophy smashing scene and the egging scene, and I think it’s so funny how Isaac is going crazy in the background and Hazel and Augustus are being all adorable together.  I love Isaac.

 

Spoiler Section (I'm not going to hide the words, just don't read this part if you don't want to)

 

 

I cried pretty early in the movie.  When there’s a flashback of Hazel as a 13 year old and she’s in pain and her mom leans over her and says “its okay to let go” I teared up…and after that there was no going back.

I love the scene where Hazel runs into Augustus at support group and then Augustus runs into that door – perfect touch.

Augustus’s driving!  It was a little different in than in the book (in the book he couldn’t feel pressure in his leg so he would stop/start really sharply) because his steering was bad, not his acceleration/deceleration.

The whole airplane ride was perfection.  Augustus was so adorable and nervous and scared and he takes out his cigarette but he can’t use it and Hazel just wants to be friends but Augustus doesn’t!  The feels!  And then Hazel jumps in and says “this is what it feels like to drive with you” and Augustus does this sarcastic laugh.  I loved that scene so much!!!

I cried happy tears when Augustus and Hazel were eating dinner in Amsterdam and Augustus was making his speech about how much he loves Hazel.  It was such a beautiful scene and I wish it had lasted longer so we could appreciate how beautiful their love was, but sadly it was rather short.

The egging scene, which was one of my favorite scenes in the book, was so hilarious.  I liked how Augustus’s speech to Monica’s mom was changed up. Also this quote:

Hazel: “Maybe we should come back when it’s dark.”

Augustus: “It’s always dark for Isaac.”

Isaac: “I MAY BE BLIND BUT I CAN STILL HEAR YOU!!”

The whole last 45 minutes of the movie, from the moment Augustus told Hazel he lit up like a Christmas tree, it was tears.  So many tears.

The gas station scene was so hard to watch.  He’s just sitting in his car crying and he’s hurting so bad and it sucks to see him like that.  He’s our beautiful Augustus.

The thing that really got me in the feels was the montage that was put in of Augustus when he was happy and smiling and at the same time he was talking in a voiceover at the end of the movie when Hazel is reading his note and it just makes losing him that much more painful.

There was also a song that played for about 10 seconds in the movie.  I don’t know what it’s called but I’ve heard it before.  The lyrics are: “if you love me, why’d you leave me?”  It’s been stuck in my head this whole time and I find myself singing it outloud and I feel like crying each time.  The lyrics hit so deep.

 

It took me about an hour before I stopped crying fully.  There were some sporadic tears, but I finally got it under control.  In the theater I went to there were only about 10-15 other people.  There were so many sniffles haha.  I’m thinking it is the best book-to-movie adaptation I’ve ever seen.  Ansel’s acting was superb and the story line followed the book perfectly – and Ansel’s hot!  What more could you ask for? (Well, maybe for Augustus not to die)

 

 

5 stars