Whose Fault is This Film?

Rating: 2/10 (12 October 2015)

The fault in not in the stars, but in the minds of this films creators.
I am not a fan of Josh Boone. Despite being pictured on IMDb with a Bob Dylan T-shirt, his films are usually the equivalent of teeny bopper pop songs, all sparkle and no soul. He also uses the same formula for every single film. It's his little bag of (cheap) tricks which is as follows -
1.Make sure your love story has a bit of death in it so that love becomes more important.
2. Keep everything very superficial in terms of thoughts and feelings and instead just use clichés to achieve empathy.
3.Throw in as much of your own musical taste as possible because everyone should have to listen to your ipod when they watch your film.
4. Set you pretentious melodrama in white middle class America, making sure everyone is rich and good looking, cos no-one wants to watch ugly poor people crying, that's just awkward.
And hey presto, you've got a Josh Boone film.
But I wanted so much to have something good to say about a movie that sets out to empathise with people who are terminally ill, but instead I found myself actually angered by this films approach to such a serious issue.
Despite being diagnosed with cancer, both of the main characters seem totally fine, very happy and to be honest in complete denial. I'm not saying this kind of movie should be a total downer, but nor should it be a disneyfied dose of shallow distraction.
If that is the case however then we are left with a question of some moral implication, namely, does this movie make light of the kind of suffering and depression involved in diseases like cancer, or is it simply trying to provide some light distraction? My view, was the former.
Even as a film for teenagers a blanket whitewash of teeny charm, axiomatic platitudes and pseudo-morality is hardly a responsible framework of material for a film that supposedly aims to help, lacking as it does in any sense of emotional maturity or intellectual depth.
I am glad however that they donated a large portion of money to cancer charities. For that, this film is forgiven. But honestly, show a Boone movie to a struggling poverty-stricken member of any society, who actually has real problems, and you'll have a riot on your hands.
If you want a serving of insincere and self indulgent sympathy then this film does the trick.