Movie Vs. Book: TFIOS

Rating: 10/10 (25 July 2014)

Hazel and Gus are two teenagers who share an acerbic wit, a disdain for the conventional, and a love that sweeps then 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 met and fell in love at a cancer support group.
The Fault in Our Stars is based on the New York Times Best Seller novel published in 2012, and written by John Green. At first I was a little bit worried to walk into a theatre for another book adaptation to a movie because (1) I loved the book and (2) there are so many of them nowadays. It became a proper trend; but gratefully TFIOS is different. This is a love story. It's a story of joy, devastating loss and most of all, life. It will make you laugh, rejoice, think, feel and will expend your heart with gratitude and humility, as well as change forever the way you hear the word "okay". YES it will make you cry! If you are one of the millions of people who have read TFIOS, you know this already. If you're not, prepare yourself as you will not walk away from this book, or this movie unaltered. I cried for the whole movie, if we're being honest. What struck me the most is that I thought I would leave really sad, but instead I felt hopeful and inspired. This movie is an encouragement. One of a kind you can take down into the darkness and it would still give you light. Personally, I read TFIOS the way Hazel falls in love with Gus: "slowly, and then all at once". I started out reading it a chapter at a time in between the papers I was grading and then I gave up on grading and read straight through till down. The strength of the film clearly comes from John Green's novel. The beauty of the book, and now the film is that it's a Young Adult novel that brought teens back to reality, which is good after years of popular YA fiction novels and movies revolving around vampires,wizards, deadly games and dystopian universes. That isn't just a "movie", Hazel's voice over intones over a close up of Shailene Woodley expressive eyes; but a document that dares to stare terminal illness baldly in the face rather than hide behind euphemisms. TFIOS' end is not that sad if we think about it for a second, it's uplifting and hopeful. It's emphasising the importance of making your days count, even if you have very few left. The movie manages to imitate those different feelings and does a great job of accurately bringing the book to life, thanks to a smart screenplay and dialogues. Plus, there are some aspects of this half-dreamy, half-earthbound romance that the director Josh Boone gets just right. Obviously certain scenes are cut but oddly non of these scenes are particularly crucial to the plot. However they may have helped to add some depth to the character. Mostly, I feel like the movie didn't really missed of anything. In fact, the most important aspect of this romance is the character's chemistry. Shailene Woodley (Hazel) and Ansel Elgort (Augustus) created two vibrant, believable parts filled with humour and intelligence. Hazel is clearly not afraid to die but she's scared of getting too close to people, and what they're going to do, how they're going to live without her. That's probably why it's so interesting to see how her parents deal with the fact that their child is dying. On the one hand Shailene Woodley embodies perfectly Hazel. She's her. She's funny, sarcastic and cynical. On the other hand, not to disrespect how amazing Shailene is in the film but Ansel Elgort is a real star. He's kind of the revelation of the movie. Gus character is tough as his heroic journey goes from strength to weakness, instead of the usual hero's journey from weakness to strength. He seems to have perfectly understood Gus in deep ways. He's brilliant. His character appeared like the best human being ever. By that I mean if everyone was like Gus there will be no problem at all on earth. Once again it's demonstrating how important is a strong supporting character in romance as they are are both overcoming the fact that they're dying of cancer (almost) together. Indeed, cancer provides the butt of the film's most funny jokes, provides the power with which the story starts to squeeze the viewers first tears.
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