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The Fault In Our Stars (Review 2)

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Released: 19th June 2014

Directed By: Josh Boone

Starring: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort

Certificate: 12A

Reviewed By: Lucy Haig

The story of Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters has captured the hearts of millions since the John Green novel was first published in 2012 and excitement about its imminent release on the big screen is rife amongst fans. However, abandon all expectation ye who enter here! While this is a true retelling of the novel, the almost word for word and scene for scene depiction of these star-crossed lovers is the cause of much awkward and clunky storytelling but fear not because once it finds its feet, it is truly spectacular.

Hazel and Augustus meet at a cancer support group and in the face of insurmountable odds – she is terminal, he an amputee fourteen months in the clear – they fall hopelessly in love. The plot centres around their mission to find the answer to the ultimate question – what happens after the ending? In this case, the ending is that of Hazel’s favourite book An Imperial Affliction, a novel that abruptly flatlines mid-sentence without any hope of a sequel. Their journey takes them halfway across the world where ultimately they relearn a tough lesson they have had many times before – we can’t always get what we want, but, this time at least, they can choose who to get it with.

Like the screenplay, the performances at play here are somewhat hit and miss. Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort (last seen playing brother and sister, Tris and Caleb, in Divergent) do have notable moments as Hazel and Augustus but both are initially very difficult to like. For the most part Elgort hits the humour on the nose but he overplays the joking arrogance of his character and, rather than coming across as part of an endearing personality quirk, it is jarring and makes him difficult to connect with in early scenes. It is a shame the sugar-coating Hazel so despises about cancer stories is employed in the final part of the film as it would have been interesting to see how Elgort handled the intense decline of such a powerful character, but convention, and possibly good sense, deprive us of this and instead we are handed narration and exposition. Overall, Woodley fairs better and she shines when portraying the darkest parts of Hazel’s illness and the pain of losing someone you love but unfortunately she falls a little too close to the swooning Bella Swan end of the spectrum when engaging with Elgort for the more romantic plot lines.

The stand out performance is that of Nat Wolff who plays Isaac, Augustus’ blind best friend and Hazel’s support group buddy. Every scene he has is a delight and in a film fraught with emotion, Wolff brings a hilarious tear to the eye. The most successful parts of the film fall squarely on his shoulders and when it is over, you wish you could have seen a little more of his story. Willem Dafoe also thrills as the cantankerous author of An Imperial Affliction, Mr Peter Van Houten, and is both different to what you’d expect and perfectly eccentric in his performance.

For the most part The Fault in Our Stars holds true to Green’s original vision which is hardly surprising given his presence on set most days. The doomed love story is beautifully staged against a memorable soundtrack and I have no doubt that for those with no pre-conceptions about what this film should be, it will be an outstanding experience and rollercoaster than most certainly only goes up. For lovers of the novel though it would be good to remember Hazel and Augustus’ main philosophy – The world is not a wish-granting factory, okay?

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