An overly contrived and deliberately depressing slog

Rating: 4/10 (11 February 2015)

Based on the best-selling novel by John Green and starring Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, THE FAULT IN OUR STARS is an occasionally poignant, but contrived, story about love and life. The plot is really easy to summarize, as it follows the basic YA formula of having two people who are quite different enter into a romance with each other. The only difference, and what I feel to be most contrived part of all, is that both of them have cancer. I wouldn't necessarily call myself cynical, but this seems to me like one of the cheapest ways to get audience sympathy. I suppose John Green set out to write a ridiculously depressing tearjerker of a novel, and for its target demographic it seems to have worked like a charm. However, I am not so easily swayed and this film didn't work on me the way it might work for others. That's not to say it wasn't well-made or well-acted, because it is, but the story felt deliberately constructed to get a certain reaction and in that respect, again for me, it failed. Neither one of the leads was particularly likable or interesting to me, and some of the dialogue they were given to say felt odd and unnatural: stuff I can't really picture teenagers actually saying. I also thought that the voice-over was a weak point, as it kind of gives away the endgame a little too early and removes tension about the main character's survival. Still, it wasn't all bad. I did enjoy the segment of the film in which Hazel and Augustus travel to Amsterdam to meet the writer of Hazel's favorite novel, "An Imperial Affliction." I won't spoil the cameo for those who haven't seen the film, but I enjoyed his character and the brutal honesty he portrays, despite him being somewhat of an a-hole. I also did appreciate some of the conclusions that the film draws about the relationships we have with others and what we leave behind. It's just a bit sad that the film wallows in so much misery and self-pity to get there. Not having read the book and not usually liking this type of film, I already know that this probably wasn't meant for me. Still, I like to go in with an open mind and give certain things a shot, especially when they're generally well-received. I'd hesitate to call this a bad film, but I will say I didn't like it. Fans of the book will probably love the hell out of this, but I was left mostly cold.