'Okay?' 'Okay.' Perhaps, 'okay' will be our 'always.'

Rating: 10/10 (25 July 2015)

Based on John Green's immensely popular novel by the same name, adapted for the screen with extreme skill by Scott Neustader and Michael H. Weber, and directed with sensitivity and taste by Josh Boone THE FAULT IN OUR STARS steps so far beyond expectations that it may just be another Nicholas Sparks young adults tearjerkers and actually becomes one of the more impressive dialogues about death and dying and the meaning and importance of love. Add to that a cast of young actors (an experienced actors) who 'live' their roles and the result is a film that should be experienced by everyone.
Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) and Augustus (Ansel Elgort) are two teenagers who share an acerbic wit, a disdain for the conventional, and a love that sweeps them on a journey. Their relationship is all the more miraculous, given that Hazel's other constant companion is an oxygen tank, Gus jokes about his prosthetic leg, and they meet and fall in love at a cancer support group. Add to that the presence of Gus' best friend Isaac (Nat Wolff) who also has cancer which makes him lose his eyes (and his mental stability at times) and we have a trio of youth facing enormous odds who end up discovering the real meaning of being alive in the world and the importance of love. Hazel's parents are (for once in film) sincerely supportive in the face of a dying child and realistically portrayed by the brilliant Laura Dern and Sam Trammel. Hazel and Gus travel to Amsterdam to visit Hazel's favorite novelist Van Houten (Willem Dafoe) and discover he is a smarmy drunk who lives with the compassionate Lidewij (Lotte Verbeek). Sharing how the story plays out would involve spoilers for those who have not read the book.
The on screen chemistry between Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgot sends this film into that rarefied realm of becoming a classic. But for this viewer, even more important is the lesson it offers about the process and concept and meaning and insignificance of death as an ending: it is a continuation.