Melodrama successfully avoided

Rating: 7/10 (20 January 2015)

Two teenage cancer survivors find each other and fall in love – sort of sounds like a trashy romance novel, an After School Special, or a Lifetime movie. Yet, somehow, this adaptation of the best-selling novel moves beyond those melodramatic hazards into a touching portrayal.
Shailene Woodley continues her string of good to great performances and her march towards stardom. Ms. Woodley and Ansel Elgort provide the grace, charm and lift which takes the storyline (and sometimes dialog) laden with potential pitfalls into an engaging film about growing up, love and loss. The supposed twist at the end is not very hard to foresee but still it does not take way much from this well-crafted movie.