The Fault In Our Stars

Cancer is a rough subject for me, having gone through the death of my father from the horrible disease and having sadly more than one friend who has fought through the disease. During 50/50, a film about Joseph Gordon Levitt fighting through cancer at a young age, I was hysterically crying in a fetal position in my theatre seat. Not exaggerating. True story. So despite the corny premise of this book I haven't read, I was pretty sure at least something would hit home with me. 

Parts of it did. Scenes of Hazel, played by the wonderfully talented Shailene Woodley, dealing with her disease on a day to day basis while struggling to maintain her sense of normalcy did hit home with me. Little things brought a lump in my throat, especially memories of my fathers helplessness and incurable pain. Scenes of treatment and near-death experiences also brought the tears up and let me feel the struggle all over again. It worked on that level, at least. 

But for me, the movie simply didn't carry the emotional weight it could have. Even though we know the cocky side of Augustus Waters, played by Ansel Elgort, I never feel like the movie really opened us up to his character and never gave me a strong reason to connect with him. Thus, his story with hers wasn't important to me.  I wanted to learn about Hazel, everything she loved about her life and everything she tragically wanted to change about it before her own "inevitable death" (not a spoiler, her own personal belief reiterated frequently throughout the film. I'm not gonna say how the movie ends). It always wants to be at a particularly emotional level, but never really gets there. And it's kind of sad, in my observations, as to why that is.

We really never see her relationships grow. We see her relationship with her mother that borders on friend, but never really see the motherly struggle aside from a couple of scenes. But these scenes tell us, rather than show us, the bond that they have. It's not nearly as powerful or meaningful as it could be. Her father is hardly ever on screen, but has an emotional speech himself. But I don't see him as her dad, I see him as another character. His emotional speech's weight doesn't have the power it could have either. 

Everyone in this film is really wonderful in their performances. But relationships feel shallow, a forced deepness that we only accept from our own relationships. It's really like an outsider looking into a story, rather than into the life of a fascinating character. I wish I could have felt more, especially having so much to relate through from my own experiences. But then again, what can I expect? There's no way anyone other than a cancer survivor can understand the struggle Hazel went through.

Rank - 3/5