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It should be agonizing, this tale of doomed love between cancer-stricken teens. It should be passionate, engrossing, suspenseful, something—even unabashed melodrama would have been appropriate, given the subject matter.

Instead, the film version of the best-selling novel "The Fault in Our Stars" feels emotionally inert, despite its many moments that are meant to put a lump in our throats. Perhaps it’s trying so hard to bludgeon us over the head and make us feel deeply that the result is numbing instead. There’s something just off about it for the vast majority of the time—an awkwardness to the staging, framing and pacing in director Josh Boone ’s adaptation of author John Green ’s tear-jerking, young adult phenomenon, and a need to spell everything out.

So much of what worked on the page—and made Green’s writing so lively and engaging—gets lost in translation and feels uncomfortably precocious when actual people actually say his words out loud. (Screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber , who also wrote the romantic charmers " (500) Days of Summer " and " The Spectacular Now ," remained very faithful to the book, which should make the core tween/teen fan base happy. Okay? Okay.)

There’s a specificity to Green’s language; his characters are hyper-verbal, self-aware and fiercely biting in the tradition of " Heathers " and " Clueless ." They know all too well that pop culture depicts cancer—especially young people with cancer—in a mawkish manner that they refuse to accept as they regard their own conditions. But while the flip, jaunty verbosity they use as a shield produces some pleasingly acerbic humor, it often feels forced and false in this setting.

Still, Shailene Woodley ’s abiding, disarming naturalism consistently keeps you engaged. She just doesn’t hit a false note. Following winning turns in the indie dramas " The Descendants " and "The Spectacular Now," and the blockbuster " Divergent ," Woodley continues to cement her accessible and likable on-screen persona. Her work is so strong, it makes you wish she had a better performance to play off of to create the sparky chemistry at the heart of this story.

Woodley stars as Hazel Grace Lancaster, a 16-year-old Indianapolis girl who’s diagnosed with cancer at 13. It weakens her lungs, forcing her to drag an oxygen tank behind her wherever she goes and to stop to rest after climbing a flight of stairs. While her situation looked bleak a few years ago, participation in a new drug trial has prolonged her life for an indefinite amount of time. Her parents ( Laura Dern and Sam Trammell , with whom she shares some lovely, honest moments) try not to hover over their daughter as she attempts to maintain some vague semblance of teenage life, and they even share her fondness for using dark humor to defuse difficult moments.

Mom insists that Hazel attends weekly cancer support group meetings (where comedian Mike Birbiglia is the amusingly earnest leader). There, she meets the handsome and equally loquacious Augustus Waters ( Ansel Elgort , who coincidentally played Woodley’s brother earlier this year in "Divergent"). A former high school basketball star, Augustus lost his right leg below the knee to the disease and now walks with a prosthetic. In Hazel, he immediately recognizes a kindred spirit: a quick-witted smart-ass who can’t take any of the feel-good platitudes seriously.

While Woodley navigates the complexity of Green’s dialogue with ease, Elgort seems stiff and uncomfortable by comparison. His character is meant to be a bit pompous and formal in the beginning but instead comes off as nervous, and even seems to be rushing or slurring his lines at times. Elgort is boyishly handsome (in a way that’s distractingly reminiscent of " Love Story "-era Ryan O’Neal, actually) but never quite radiates the charisma required to keep up with Woodley. Their pairing feels like a missed opportunity.

Hazel and Augustus’ shared love of reading inspires a trip to Amsterdam to seek out the reclusive writer of Hazel’s favorite novel, the fictitious "An Imperial Affliction," which also happens to be about a young woman living with cancer. Willem Dafoe brings a jolt of creepiness to the role of the alcohol-addled author, a rare sensation in a film that too often feels tidy. Their visit also sets the stage for the oddest scene of all (in both the book and the film) when Hazel and Augustus share their first kiss before an applauding crowd of tourists in the attic of Anne Frank’s house. Yeesh.

Yet we know this bliss can’t last. And so "The Fault in Our Stars" descends into major hanky territory with an overpowering assist from a nearly omnipresent soundtrack of wistful alt-rock tunes that tell us what to feel, and when, and how much. (I will happily admit to having tears stream down my face during the third act of Green’s book but, alas, did not get choked up here.)

Theoretically, these iconoclasts wouldn’t want their story to be told in such obvious and heavy-handed fashion. To borrow their favorite line from Hazel’s favorite book: "Pain demands to be felt."

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film credits.

The Fault in Our Stars movie poster

The Fault in Our Stars (2014)

Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, some sexuality and brief strong language

125 minutes

Shailene Woodley as Hazel Grace Lancaster

Ansel Elgort as Augustus Waters

Nat Wolff as Isaac

Laura Dern as Mrs. Lancaster

Sam Trammell as Mr. Lancaster

Willem Dafoe as Peter Van Houten

  • Scott Neustadter
  • Michael H. Weber

Cinematography

  • Ben Richardson

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Film Review: ‘The Fault in Our Stars’

A never-better Shailene Woodley anchors director Josh Boone's tricky cancer-themed melodrama.

By Andrew Barker

Andrew Barker

Senior Features Writer

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fault in our stars

Though it’s correctly categorized as a teen romance, “ The Fault in Our Stars ” is above all a movie about cancer. Cancer provides the butt of the film’s most caustic jokes, provides the magnetic pull that first draws its star-crossed couple together, and provides the power with which the story eventually starts to squeeze its viewers’ tear ducts like water balloons in a pressure cooker. As such, it walks a knife’s edge between heart-on-sleeve sensitivity and crass exploitation for its entire running time, and the fact that it largely stays on the right side of that divide has to mark it as a success. Soulfully acted, especially by a never-better Shailene Woodley , and several degrees smarter than most films aimed at teenagers, this Fox melodrama ought to strike a resonant chord with young audiences.

Based on John Green ’s bestselling novel, the film offers the first-person accounts of Hazel Grace Lancaster (Woodley), a bright 16-year-old who can hardly remember not living with cancer. She came perilously close to death as a preteen, but an experimental “miracle” treatment beat her disease back to relatively manageable levels: She has to breathe from a tube tethered to an oxygen tank she lugs around like a carry-on bag, and her lifespan has no clear prognosis, but she’s far from helpless.

Her parents (Laura Dern, Sam Trammell) are a loving, lovable pair who worry that Hazel is becoming depressed, as she has no friends and spends her time endlessly rereading reclusive author Peter Van Houten’s postmodern cancer-themed novel, “An Imperial Affliction.” After some insistently gentle prodding, she agrees to attend a weekly church-basement support group hosted by sappy Jesus freak Patrick (Mike Birbiglia).

Here she meets Augustus Waters ( Ansel Elgort ), a strapping, clever, impossibly handsome 18-year-old whose basketball career was cut short when cancer took his right leg, but who appears to have since made a full recovery. He asks Hazel out on a series of chaste hangout dates, reads her favorite book, stays up until the wee hours on the phone with her, and ever-so-gradually brings her out of her shell.

Hazel is a great character, tart without being cynical, vulnerable without being needy, and capable of tossing out bons mots like “I’m the Keith Richards of cancer kids” without seeming like a writerly construct. Augustus is decidedly less developed, essentially functioning as a male version of the types of restorative free spirits usually played by Kate Hudson and Kirsten Dunst in Cameron Crowe movies, and prone to dandyish flourishes  — particularly his habit of brandishing an unlit cigarette as a sort of totemistic charm against death  — that surely worked better as literary metaphors than visual ones. But their rapport is believable, their chemistry palpable, and the film is never more likable than when it unhurriedly lingers on their low-key courtship.

A few weeks into their relationship, Augustus springs a big surprise: Calling in a favor from a Make-A-Wish-type foundation, he’s arranged a trip for the two of them to Amsterdam, where Van Houten (Willem Dafoe) has apparently agreed to sit down with Hazel and answer her infinite questions about his book. (In one of the pic’s most darkly funny scenes, Augustus mocks Hazel for wasting her wish on a trip to Disney World, “pre-miracle.”)

It’s in Amsterdam that the film opens up visually  — ditching the closeups and domestic interior scenes to take in the well-photographed surroundings  — and Hazel and Augustus forge their most affecting connections. It’s also the only section where the film tips fully over into uncomfortable kitsch, as the couple experiences a romantic breakthrough during a visit to Anne Frank’s attic, while voiceovers recite passages from “The Diary of a Young Girl.” The film may get away with using cancer to tug the heartstrings, but combining cancer and the Holocaust is at least one trigger too many.

But this glaring misstep only goes to demonstrate just how well the film has navigated these choppy waters thus far. Director Josh Boone is hardly the most distinctive cinematic stylist, but he’s smart enough to let his scenes linger for a few beats longer than most mainstream directors would, and seems to trust his actors to carry their own dramatic weight.

Woodley repays that trust in spades. With close-cropped hair and minimal makeup, she eschews any overly theatrical tics, rarely oversells her character’s goodness and wit  — even when her lines seem to be begging for it  — and manages to convincingly convey terminal illness without invoking easy pathos. Though her character may be 16, Woodley’s performance is thoroughly adult, and offers a reminder that, while the occasional multipart blockbuster franchise like “Divergent” can theoretically be part of a balanced diet for a young actress, she has much more to offer the cinema than an ability to run through obstacle courses while mouthing mealy mythology.

Woodley’s “Divergent” co-star Elgort can’t match her level of naturalism, and his cocky, smirking self-confidence never quite jibes with his displays of boundless selflessness where Hazel is concerned, but he’s ultimately charming enough to wear down most resistance.

The screenplay, adapted by “The Spectacular Now” scripters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, does contain a few clunkers, and lays it on a bit thick toward the end, with a procession of scenes ruthlessly rigged to target the few remaining dry eyes in the theater. But on the whole, the scribes give their audience a good deal of credit, looping in some interesting references to neuroethics and calculus without overexplaining or dumbing them down.

Reviewed at Fox Studios, Century City, Calif., May 27, 2014. MPAA rating: PG-13. Running time: 126 MIN.

  • Production: A 20th Century Fox release of a Fox 2000 Pictures presentation of a Temple Hill production. Produced by Wyck Godfrey, Marty Bowen. Executive producers, Michele Imperato Stabile, Isaac Klausner.
  • Crew: Directed by Josh Boone. Screenplay, Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber, from the book by John Green. Camera (color), Ben Richardson; editor, Robb Sullivan; music, Mike Mogis, Nathaniel Walcott; music supervisor, Season Kent; production designer, Molly Hughes; costume designer, Mary Claire Hannan; art director, Gregory Weimerskirch; set decorator, Merissa Lombardo; sound (Dolby/Datasat/SDDS), Jim Emswiller; supervising sound editor, Donald Sylvester; re-recording mixers, Andy Nelson, Sylvester; visual effects supervisor, Jake Braver; assistant director, H.H. Cooper; casting, Ronna Kress.
  • With: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Laura Dern, Sam Trammell, Nat Wolff, Willem Dafoe, Lotte Verbeek, Mike Birbiglia.

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‘the fault in our stars’: film review.

Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort star in Josh Boone's adaptation of John Green's best-selling young adult novel.

By Justin Lowe

Justin Lowe

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'The Fault in Our Stars': Film Review

The Fault in Our Stars Woodley Elgort Walking - H 2014

With interest in adapting John Green’s fourth novel running high even before its 2012 debut atop The New York Times best-seller list, Twilight producers Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen managed to snatch up the film rights to the hugely popular narrative, which may have been a bit of a “be careful what you wish for” moment. With the book’s millions of adoring fans eagerly anticipating the movie’s release, a distinct risk of blow-back was practically built in to the project.

Fortunately, director Josh Boone and his filmmaking team appear to have minimized the downside, in part by casting fast-rising star Shailene Woodley in the lead, along with her Divergent franchise co-star Ansel Elgort . Both are likely to be strong selling points with the film’s youth-skewing target audience, which is being further softened up by a robust marketing campaign and Green’s own substantial social media presence. With the onset of summer vacation and few similar distractions in theaters at the outset, The Fault in Our Stars should perform strongly out of the gate, with the potential to show significant staying power in the weeks following.

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If any teenager can reasonably be described as “ordinary,” then 16-year-old Hazel Grace Lancaster (Woodley) is far from it. A cancer survivor since the age of 13, she’s fully in possession of both keen intelligence and sharp wit, if not her health – a challenging combination for a kid who could clearly do with a few more friends than she actually has. Instead, her most constant companions are the oxygen tank connected to the breathing tube that supports her seriously compromised lungs, along with her concerned mother, Frannie ( Laura Dern ), and protective father, Michael ( Sam Trammell ).

Hazel gets a chance to branch out when, at the urging of both her mom and her doctor, she joins an often lame though occasionally amusing church-based cancer-survivor support group, where she meets 18-year-old Augustus “Gus” Waters (Elgort), an equally precocious teen with a rather more constructive outlook than Hazel’s. Despite losing a leg to cancer, his disease is in remission and he’s dreaming of new ways to conquer the world, along with his best friend Isaac ( Nat Wolff ), who’s battling the affliction as well. Irreverent rather than cynical, he freely shares that he intends to “live an extraordinary life” and bonds with Hazel over her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction , written by Dutch-American author Peter Van Houten ( Willem Dafoe ), which just happens to be about living with cancer.

Hazel is borderline obsessed with contacting the elusive Van Houten, but he never responds to her missives. So it’s a bit shocking and even overwhelming when the writer’s assistant replies to an email from Gus soliciting information about Van Houten’s book. Then Hazel gets a message from Van Houten himself, and the author invites her to visit if she’s ever in Amsterdam. Hazel and Gus, who often insists on calling her “Hazel Grace,” quickly cook up a plan to make the trip, but it’s nixed by Hazel’s doctors and parents, concerned that the stress of the journey will strain her lungs and disrupt the experimental cancer-drug treatment she’s dependent on for her survival.

Meanwhile, Gus is falling hard for Hazel, who is fairly smitten herself, but as her condition worsens, she pulls back, telling Gus “I’m a grenade and one day I’m going to explode and obliterate everything in my wake.” Undeterred, he counters that her withdrawal doesn’t lessen his affection for her, and when he manages to find an unexpected method of funding their travel, the plan is back on again. As both teens face suddenly critical health issues, however, the outcome of both the trip and their increasingly romantic relationship becomes appreciably more uncertain.

The greatest strengths of the film clearly come from Green’s novel, which resolutely refuses to become a cliched cancer drama, creating instead two vibrant, believable young characters filled with humor and intelligence, both facing complex questions and issues unimaginable even to people twice their age. Turning the screenwriting over to adaptation experts Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber has preserved the distinctly literate tone of the book, even if they do occasionally deliver scenes that feel overwrought.

The script makes an excellent fit for Woodley, whose feature film career really took off with The Descendants and The Spectacular Now, two similarly smart, self-aware films. Woodley’s wise and accomplished take on Hazel Lancaster will resonate with those inclined to view the world with a somewhat skeptical point of view, although they may face similar resistance to the prospect of romance entering her life. By dint of ample charm and considerable insight, Elgort’s Gus represents more than a foil for Hazel’s self-doubt – he offers her the opportunity to mold all of her hope and frustration into a fully three-dimensional, transcendent emotional experience, whether she wants to call that “love” or not.

As Hazel’s protective but practical parents , Dern and Trammell display a realistic degree of concern without completely smothering her, and when crisis erupts, their instinctual compassion quickly restores calm. Wolff, whose character loses both eyes to cancer, provides some suitably dark humor , although it’s left to Dafoe as the acerbic author whose young daughter succumbed to the disease to deftly deliver the film’s least reassuring perspective.

Boone’s appropriately light touch emphasizes the underlying literary material, foregrounding the performances with occasional underplayed visual humor and reserving stylistic nuance for more contemplative scenes, attractively framed by cinematographer Ben Richardson. Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott’s score somewhat literally underlines the overly insistent, folky-leaning soundtrack selections from the likes of Tom Odell, Lykke Li and Ray LaMontagne.

Production company: Temple Hill Entertainment Cast: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Laura Dern, Sam Trammell, Nat Wolff, Willem Dafoe, Lotte Verbeek, Mike Birbiglia Director: Josh Boone Screenwriters : Scott Neustadter , Michael H. Weber Producers: Wyck Godfrey, Marty Bowen Executive producers: Michele Imperato Stabile, Isaac Klausner Director of photography: Ben Richardson Production designer: Molly Hughes Costume designer: Mary Claire Hannan Editor: Robb Sullivan Music: Mike Mogis, Nate Walcott

Rated PG-13, 125 minutes

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The Fault in our Stars review – manipulative and crass

You have to admire the brutal efficiency in this emotional teen movie, based on the colossal young adult bestseller by John Green , which for the most part enforces the silver ring of abstinence with cancer. You have to concede the laser-guided accuracy and psychotic vehemence with which it goes for the tear duct. It's like being mugged by a professional whose skills in mixed martial arts you can't help but notice and appreciate, even as you are savagely beaten, then dragged upright, bruised and bleeding, and forced to watch as your assailant gives fully 45% of your money to charity.

Shailene Woodley (from Divergent, and Alexander Payne's The Descendants) plays Hazel, a teenage cancer patient, whose thyroid lesions have metastasised to her lungs; her condition, once gravely critical, has stabilised due to experimental drug treatment, but she has to wheel around a portable oxygen tank, a lite-tragical accessory. In the support group that her mom (Laura Dern) forces her to attend, Hazel catches the eye of Gus (Ansel Elgort), a cute boy, whose osteosarcoma condition is also stabilised after the amputation of one leg, although this is mostly concealed under his jeans.

They are as rich and attractive as teens in a Nancy Meyers movie, with a quirky, smart, back-talking relationship. Life-affirming Gus likes to have an unlit cigarette in his mouth to show his existential defiance. Despite being such an obvious hottie, Gus is a virgin. Hazel's own condition in this respect is apparently so self-evident that she never says it out loud. It is all too clearly Gus's virginity, not his cancer, which is his heartbreaking vulnerability, like Rochester getting to be blind at the beginning and not the end of Jane Eyre. "You two are so adorable," says Hazel's mother, out loud, without anyone nearby screaming.

Hazel is obsessed with a novel called An Imperial Affliction with a bafflingly abrupt ending, all about a girl dying of cancer, written by a reclusive author called Peter van Houten. (The title may have been inspired by Siddhartha Mukherjee's Pulitzer-winning study The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.) Impulsive, entrancing Gus whisks her and her mom off to Amsterdam to meet her hero, and it is a journey that is to bring their relationship to a crisis.

Now, there may be people who can witness a halfway competent dramatic representation of the death of children from cancer without choking up. I am not among them – and it was the same before I became a parent. But through the occasional mist of tears, the essential phoney-baloniness of this film looked even worse. Woodley is very good, no doubt about it. What might this talented young star achieve if she were in a film which was not fantastically manipulative and crass?

Flashbacks show that Woodley's character lost her hair when she was 12. It has thankfully grown back, but she is wearing it austerely short. Gus is way cute, and his lifestyle, like Hazel's, does not appear to be modified in any appreciable way by his illness. They are both extremely comfortably off, and Gus's bedroom is like a starter man-cave for a wealthy and obnoxious young man – so ostentatious, in fact, that I assumed some learning experience, some comeuppance, was coming his way.

But no. Their respective parents are also in this too-good-to-be-true bracket, although Hazel's mom appears to have whispered something extraordinary to Hazel, when she was in a grave situation in hospital years previously. It is something that Hazel has not forgotten and that should theoretically deepen and complicate their relationship profoundly. But the pair just hug it out. It's like it never happened.

The Fault in Our Stars reaches a nadir of horror when Hazel and Gus visit the Anne Frank House. The couple are overwhelmed with emotion at their own situation and make out, while the surrounding crowd melt with romcom bliss, offering encouragement in various European languages. The Pont des Arts in Paris is becoming choked with padlocks affixed by lovers. Maybe now there will be a nonstop traffic jam of sad snogging teens in Anne Frank's bedroom.

The title is taken from Cassius in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars/ But in ourselves, that we are underlings." Perhaps getting cancer was written in the stars for them, but Hazel and Gus realise that it is "in themselves" to do something in response, up to them to make the best of life. That's fair enough. And perhaps therapeutic escapism is the point of The Fault in Our Stars – although Hazel claims that it is the real thing. This prettified cancer fantasy comes nowhere near.

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film review essay the fault in our stars

The Fault In Our Stars

Movie Still from The Fault in Our Stars 2014

The Fault In Our Stars (directed by  Josh Boone ) is the screen adaptation of the bestselling book of the same name (written by author John Green). Hazel Grace Lancaster ( Shailene Woodley ) is a long-time cancer survivor who carries an obligatory oxygen tank wherever she goes. Concerned with her daughter's depressive state (for reasons known to us), Hazel's mother, Frannie Lancaster (played by Laura Dern) lovingly pushes her to attend a cancer support group. While attending the said support group, Hazel locks eyes with Augustus Waters ( Ansel Elgort ) and from then on, a blossoming relationship begins.

Willem Dafoe.  What the hell, Dafoe.  I'm accustomed to seeing him in the less mainstream films (such as  Lars von Trier's     Antichrist  and  Nymphomaniac ). This appearance is simultaneously unnerving and baffling, to say the least. He plays Peter Van Houten, a caricature of a pissed-off writer whose last book had caught the admiration of lead character Hazel.  Subsequently, the two teens travel to meet him in a scene that can only be described as saddening and utterly bizarre. Eventually, he's villainous behavior is given an explanation in an attempt to give his character depth.

Making out at Anne Frank's exhibition.  Ugh, people actually watched them passionately make out and started clapping and cheering. I've read other people's takes on this scene being quite fitting considering Anne Frank's narration was playing as Hazel struggled to make it up the stairs of the exhibition. I do not agree. Why would a crowd of people surround you and applaud you, no matter the situation? It felt unrealistic and out of place.

Drama central.  From this, I mean the all the talk of dealing with tragedy, cancer, death and consequently having to do so at such a young age. The main characters, Augustus and Hazel try to uncover their lives impact, the meaning of life and aim to experience their short times on earth together.  Laura Dern  delivered a   splendid and non-standardized portrayal of a parent with a terminally ill child.

Funny bits.  So that audiences do not sob throughout the entire movie,   The Fault in Our Stars  has incorporated dashes of comedy. Especially seen in the encounters with their mutual friend Isaac ( Nat Wolff ). I'll admit that a few of the sickly sweet dialogue between the couple made for some chucklesome scenes.

That cigarette close to death metaphor.  It can only be described as an agonizingly reoccurring bit.   Augustus never failed to have an unlit cigarette hanging out of his mouth (being seated on an airplane, rocking up in a limo etc.)

Grab some tissues, you'll need them. 

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The Fault in Our Stars Reviews

film review essay the fault in our stars

The subject matter — a pair of teenage cancer sufferers meet and fall in love — could have been mawkish mush, but there’s a sharp, abrasive wit and anger that tempers the tear-jerking with humour.

Full Review | Feb 13, 2023

film review essay the fault in our stars

It actually presents us with situations and a relationship that feels genuine yet uncertain because of the dark cloud hanging over it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 20, 2022

film review essay the fault in our stars

My biggest complaint about the whole experience was being splashed by the tears of my fellow moviegoers. Bring a towel.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 1, 2021

The reason that The Fault in Our Stars works so well is that its main draw (the teenage love story) is tied so expertly to its emotional core (Hazel's relationship with her parents).

Full Review | Jan 21, 2021

The winning combo of the shamelessly melodramatic and the slyly mischievous that powers the movie owes much to yet another pitch-perfect lead performance from Woodley.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 17, 2020

film review essay the fault in our stars

Sadly, in Hollywood's hands all the things that made John Green's taut, touching and terrific 2012 novel transcend generation gaps have been jettisoned in favour of a hyperglycaemic tale of two star-crossed (cancer-riddled) teens.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Nov 10, 2020

film review essay the fault in our stars

In other words, this is real. If anyone tells you differently, they haven't a clue.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 7, 2020

film review essay the fault in our stars

In a laudable attempt to seem heartfelt without blatant manipulation, the film generally succeeds, thanks especially to a winning performance from Shailene Woodley.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 30, 2019

film review essay the fault in our stars

It's charming, well-written, superbly acted.

Full Review | Original Score: 9.4/10 | Aug 8, 2019

Heartfelt, sincere and altogether rather wonderful, The Fault in Our Stars will enchant audiences and leave behind very few dry eyes in its wake.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 14, 2019

film review essay the fault in our stars

It all felt kind of manipulative and corny.

Full Review | Original Score: D | Apr 30, 2019

film review essay the fault in our stars

Woodley and Elgort are gifted in that they exude intelligence, thoughtfulness, and savvy, making smart dialogue sound smart, the corniest lines sound terribly romantic and natural.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Mar 28, 2019

Under the assured direction of Josh Boone, the film earns its emotions without grand manipulative gestures, and finds its heart through the fantastic cast and an effortless and appealing intimacy between the characters.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 26, 2019

Dafoe is, as expected, solid in the role, but I felt the storyline on the whole could have been a little tighter. That's a minor fault however, in a script whose stars make it all worthwhile.

Full Review | Mar 5, 2019

film review essay the fault in our stars

The talented cast and crew enhance what is already some pretty good material, making "Fault" a teenage tearjerker that doesn't fall into a typical Hollywood weeper formula.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Feb 1, 2019

It's sweet, cathartic and a bit beautiful. Just make sure you bring Kleenex.

Full Review | Jan 31, 2019

In the end, this adaptation may not be all that different than effective screen tearjerkers of the past, but in staying true to its source material, its infinity is bound to be a little bigger than most.

Full Review | Nov 20, 2018

film review essay the fault in our stars

It will certainly be a tearjerker for some, but the film's final triumphant message means that you shouldn't be too depressed when you leave the theatre.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Nov 1, 2018

film review essay the fault in our stars

The two-hour and five-minute running time of continuous sadness and unending pearls of wisdom made this viewer disconnect from the characters.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 21, 2018

film review essay the fault in our stars

The problem may be that The Fault in Our Stars is based on a book by John Green; this certainly wouldn't be the first time a strong literary narrative had troubles translating to the screen.

Full Review | Nov 28, 2017

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The Fault in Our Stars film review

The film is faithful to a fault from the dialogues to the clothes, the setting and the food, even while skipping over some of the unpleasant details..

film review essay the fault in our stars

Director: Josh Boone Cast: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Nat Wolff, Laura Dern Indian Express rating: **1/2

“The world is not a wish-granting factory” doesn’t have quite the resonance of “What can you say about a 25-year-old girl who died?”. However, that’s not for the lack of trying. Forty-four years after that opening of Love Story and the ailing woman at the centre of it surged the book and movie to a monster success, here’s another film trying to make the best of a bestseller that was saved from being mawkishly exploitative only because of the spunky, raw and brutally honest notes it managed to strike at regular intervals.

film review essay the fault in our stars

But even John Greene’s book The Fault in Our Stars was transparent in its almost obsessive philosophising, realising that in the well-endowed market of young adult fiction, cancer isn’t enough to get romance love. However, where Greene brought in ethical theories, Venn Diagram, maths, metaphors and a very unlikable author with an equally verbose bent of thought, he also let his teens be teens in a world where few saw beyond her cannula plus oxygen tank and his prosthetic leg, including overindulging in video games.

Despite a readymade audience that comes with such gigantic bestseller, translating all of the above from the romance and the loving to the disease and the dying was never going to be easy. If Boone even gets halfway there, it is on account of Woodley (last seen in Divergent), who truly gets the unlikely Hazel Grace Lancaster that’s at the centre of this story.

Diagnosed with cancer when she was 13 and a death experience later, Hazel is now 17, breathing with the help of a nose cannula, quiet, more tired than cynical about her circumstances, and quite adult in her reactions. That’s clear from even the book she swears by, An Imperial Affliction, about a girl dying from cancer, which ended mid-sentence. The only subject that gets Hazel animated is a reflection on what happens later, after the girl, Anna’s, death.

Festive offer

When an impossibly charming 18-year-old Augustus Waters appears to take a liking to her, at a mutual cancer support group, and equally to the book – which is way out of his normal zombie reading – their fates are but sealed together. Augustus lost his leg to osteosarcoma but now appears on the bend.

To anyone familiar with the book, the film is faithful to a fault from the dialogues to the clothes, the setting and the food, even while skipping over some of the unpleasant details including what would have been an awkward sex scene. It also throws in a limousine for apparently no reason at all.

However, while these dilute the film of some of its essence, the more unpardonable flaw is how insipid all the other characters are, particularly Augustus who exists merely to fulfill Hazel’s dreams unlike the contrast-ridden dreamboat he was in the book.

The film also labours to underline the connection between Hazel’s search for an afterlife for Anna’s story and her concern for her own parents after her death – unlike how it flowed quite naturally in the book. And that’s nothing compared to how it uses Anne Frank’s story to illustrate Hazel’s struggle.

That Woodley even walks away from that last scene — struggling for breath and hauling her oxygen tank up impossible flights of stairs in the Amsterdam house Anne Frank took refuge in, ending it with her first kiss with Augustus and an applause – unharmed, is to her credit. She makes it all seem plausible, pulling along a mostly overwhelmed Elgort with her.

“Some infinities are bigger than other infinities” is another favourite line of The Fault in Our Stars – the point being about time being what you make of it. The film may not stand that test of time but, something tells us, the line will. That may be infinite enough.

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The fault in our stars, common sense media reviewers.

film review essay the fault in our stars

Heartbreaking love story is a must-see for fans of the book.

The Fault in Our Stars Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The movie, like the book, has important messages a

In many YA/teen stories, the parents are portrayed

The way that cancer physically and emotionally aff

There's one love scene, and it's more emot

One use of "f--k," plus a couple of uses

Brands shown or featured include Apple (iPhone, Ma

Gus has a habit of putting an unlit cigarette in h

Parents need to know that The Fault in Our Stars is a tear-jerking love story about two deep-thinking teens with cancer and is based on one of the most beloved young adult books in recent history, by superstar author John Green. Due to the subject matter, it should come as no surprise that the movie can get…

Positive Messages

The movie, like the book, has important messages about the purpose of life: what it means to make your mark in the world and to be loved and remembered, how love can feel infinite even in a finite number of days, and how what afflicts you isn't what defines you. Most of the messages are about life, love, and relationships -- as well as literature and what it means to feel connected to the books we read. Gus' motto that you can't keep yourself from getting hurt -- but you can choose wisely about who you allow to hurt you -- is a powerful one.

Positive Role Models

In many YA/teen stories, the parents are portrayed as insensitive or even antagonistic, but Hazel's mom and dad are amazing: supportive, loving, and understanding of her needing time and space to be with Augustus. Hazel and Gus don't let their cancer keep them away from each other, and Gus especially feels strongly about surrounding himself with beauty and joy, particularly Hazel.

Violence & Scariness

The way that cancer physically and emotionally affects the teen characters is likely to disturb and upset viewers. A key character's death devastates other characters (as well as the audience). Characters egg another character's car.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

There's one love scene, and it's more emotional than physical in its depiction and doesn't feel gratuitous. It takes place between two teens who are both virgins, and this is their one and only time making love. The girl has her top off, but you just see her back and the boy's chest. Afterward they're shown sleeping in each other's arms. Also a few passionate kisses.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

One use of "f--k," plus a couple of uses of "s--tty," "a--hole," "douchepants," and "goddamn."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Brands shown or featured include Apple (iPhone, MacBook), Converse sneakers, Honda Accord, American Airlines, Barnes & Noble, Mercedes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Super Mario Bros, and a Mitsubishi sports coupe.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Gus has a habit of putting an unlit cigarette in his mouth and letting it dangle there, since unlit it can do no harm (he says it's a metaphor). He goes around with the same cigarette pack for most of the movie. Gus and Hazel drink champagne together twice. Author Peter Van Houten is a drunk and is nearly always shown with a drink or a flask in his hand. Hazel teases her parents that she should be allowed to be a regular teen with a fake ID so she can drink and "take" pot.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Fault in Our Stars is a tear-jerking love story about two deep-thinking teens with cancer and is based on one of the most beloved young adult books in recent history , by superstar author John Green . Due to the subject matter, it should come as no surprise that the movie can get emotionally intense -- especially when there's a devastating death. The central relationship is beautiful and mature and does lead to a love scene, which is handled tastefully for teen audiences (a girl's naked back and boy's chest are seen). Language is rare but does include one use of "f--k," as well as words like "s--t" and "a--hole." The teen characters drink champagne together, and a key adult supporting character is a drunk who's nearly always sipping from something. Gus also frequently puts unlit cigarettes in his mouth. As long as your teens are ready for all the feelings, sadness, and romance, this is a lovely film to watch with them, especially since Hazel's parents are portrayed so positively (they're supportive, loving, and understanding). To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

  • Parents say (38)
  • Kids say (237)

Based on 38 parent reviews

Way overrated

Mature but nothing most teenagers couldn’t handle, what's the story.

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS is about Hazel Grace Lancaster ( Shailene Woodley ), a 17-year-old book lover dealing with stage-four metastatic cancer that has spread to her lungs, requiring her to wear a cannula and carry around an oxygen cannister. Her worried but supportive parents ( Laura Dern , Sam Trammell ) encourage her to attend a local support group for teens with cancer; it's there that she meets Augustus Waters ( Ansel Elgort ), who can't keep his eyes off her. After group, a clearly interested Gus tells Hazel that she's beautiful and invites her to hang out with him and his best friend, Isaac ( Nat Wolff ). Hazel is attracted to Gus but is hesitant to start a relationship when she knows she's dying. Ever persistent, Gus sweeps Hazel off her feet when he gives up his one "cancer wish" to make her dream come true: traveling to Amsterdam to meet her favorite author.

Is It Any Good?

While The Fault in Our Stars isn't a word-for-word translation (nor should it be), it's an adaptation that does Green, Hazel, and Augustus justice. Anyone who's ever loved a book knows the hesitance and wariness that mingle with excitement when a beloved novel is turned into a big-screen production. There's a sense of panic that the director, screenwriter, and cast won't capture everything you love about the words and characters the author created. But fans of the book needn't worry. Woodley, a Golden Globe nominee and veteran of YA adaptations ( Divergent , The Spectacular Now ), delivers a gentle, wickedly smart Hazel, who feels like a grenade about to go off but eventually realizes that she does deserve to be loved by Gus, even if their future is uncertain.

But as lovely as Woodley is as Hazel, the movie belongs to newcomer Elgort (who co-starred as Woodley's brother in Divergent ), who has the tough job of being solicitous, sexy, smart, and sensitive all at the same time. He manages to pull it off beautifully, never letting the character spin out of control or seem false. The supporting characters also deliver laudable performances: Wolff as Gus' blind best friend, and Dern and Trammell as one of the most loving set of parents ever depicted on page or screen. Viewers will experience the wonder of falling in love but also the pain of knowing that someone you adore is dying. Still, to quote Hazel's favorite book, "pain demands to be felt." And feel it you will, which is more than okay.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about whether The Fault in Our Stars is a successful adaptation. What changes did the filmmakers make, and you do you understand why they made them? What parts of the movie captured the book best, and what parts of the book did you miss not seeing in the movie?

Do you prefer adaptations based on realistic fiction or based on genre fiction, like dystopian/paranormal stories? Why do you think there are so many YA adaptations in the works?

What do you think the author and filmmaker are trying to say about literature and our relationship to books? Do books and movies need a happy ending to make them good or worthwhile? What are some other tales that don't end as you expected but are still among your favorite movies or books?

How does the movie depict sex ? How is it different here from how it's often portrayed in other teen movies/books? Parents, talk to your teens about your own values regarding sex and relationships.

Movie Details

  • In theaters : June 6, 2014
  • On DVD or streaming : September 16, 2014
  • Cast : Shailene Woodley , Ansel Elgort , Willem Dafoe
  • Director : Josh Boone
  • Inclusion Information : Female actors
  • Studio : Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
  • Genre : Romance
  • Topics : Book Characters
  • Run time : 125 minutes
  • MPAA rating : PG-13
  • MPAA explanation : thematic elements, some sexuality and brief strong language
  • Last updated : November 12, 2023

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Home / Essay Samples / Literature / The Fault in Our Stars / Reflection On The Film The Fault In Our Stars

Reflection On The Film The Fault In Our Stars

  • Category: Entertainment , Literature
  • Topic: Film Analysis , The Fault in Our Stars

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