Quite moving story. But somehow with goofs and failure of twists.

Rating: 8/10 (12 September 2014)

The story of those teenagers just at my age, has taught us a lesson. It's little difficult for me to understand that story fully, since I'm a teenager too, but not a patient of cancer, or at least not diagnosed. Their situation is really hard for me to be fitted in with.
But after reading a few reviews, I get a sense of a larger scale, that I don't need to be with cancer to catch the means behind the shots. That the death might be the best way of being remembered and loved. Gus passed away, as a great boyfriend and a great friend, a lovely son. He left us a handsome figure. His girlfriend, Hazel, remained in love with him, maybe "always". For Isaac, though he was not died, he lost his girlfriend Monica, with their "always" became a fake. If Isaac died, he could be remembered by Monica forever, be with love until his last day, like Gus.
Another thing is that it's so heart-breaking to expect that someday, your love will die. It's totally different from dying from accidents. You're taking everyday preciously, knowing everyday might be his/her last day. I can't stand that. But that's what they did in the film.
So, now, a little bit of filmmaking. There're a lot of music in the film, some of them are quite well, while others are lack of proper emotions. In the start, the music does a great job of building the atmosphere. But in the end, when Hazel opened the letter from Van Houton, the music gave me a kind of absurdity, not so contemplative as an end of a film.
For their trip to Amsterdam, to me, the plane took off as soon as the flight attendance got away with the Captain's announcement. That's too quickly that hardly no one can get prepared for take off.
And the letter from Van Houton again. He gave Hazel a letter after Gus' Funeral. It seems like the director and the writers tried to present us a strong twist, about the aloofness of Van Houton superficially, and the real means of him. But I didn't cry since I didn't care about his words. Those are trivial to the film, I thought. I haven't read the book yet, so I can't prejudge it's whose fault. But surly, it can be improved for a better film.