REVIEW: THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

Getting "TFIOS" for my 17th birthday

It's only too easy to dismiss TFIOS as a chick flick if you are unfamiliar with the source material. While it does sound a bit sappy that two cancer stricken kids would meet together and fall in love, I suggest you familiarize yourself with the works of John Green, and his signature, smart alec wit. There hasn't been a wrong note in his novels, Looking for Alaska probably being the most deserving in my book. Avoiding most cliches of the hospital drama, Green instead chose to go the route of love, not pandering at all to his fan base, who appear to be nearly as intelligent as the rapid, word churning YouTube vlogger himself. The big question to nearly every adaptation in the business: is it as good as the book?

Honestly...nearly. The film isn't flawless like your teenage daughter will tell you, but it's a very solid addition to not only the teenage romance canon but to cancer movies, which can be partially indistinguishable at times. Even the term "cancer movie" would probably be shoved into a Lifetime Original Movie classification. But, with the grace and talent of Ms. Woodley and relative newcomer Ansel Egert, along with a big handful of chemistry between the two of them, this movie begins to reach the potential greatness that its Young Adult source material provided it.

The script retains a lot of Green's original dialogue, and that's never a bad thing. When in doubt, just go with the words that made the material popular to begin with. Woodley has always, always impressed me in anything she's been with on the silver screen. She deserved a pair of Oscars for her work in one of my all-time favorites, The Descendants and The Spectacular Now, an equally excellent teen romance I actually liked slightly better than this movie. Both had equal amounts of gritty, teenage love realism, but I'm going to tip it more in favor of Miles Teller instead of Egert, who, while bringing a right amount of cockiness and confidence to the complex role of Gus, can be a bit one-note.  Teller's alcoholic, more subtly sad portrayal had more punch to it.

TFIOS is loyal to the material, and hardly deviates. Willem Dafoe is a wicked surprise as the author of Hazel's favorite book, and Laura Dern is equally fine as Hazel's mother, though I would've loved to see a stronger connection between mother and daughter, but it's not really their movie, is it? The romance is spectacular here, a chemistry not easily found in teen romances nowadays. Scribes Michael H. Weber and Scott Neustadter have a winner on their hands, their third including Spectacular Now and (500) Days of Summer, showcasing their knack for modern love. I can't wait to see what they do with Green's next movie treatment Paper Towns, the superb novel that introduced me to the master author in the first place.

Rating: 3/4 stars