Lives Up to the Hype, and Bring Your Tissues

Rating: 9/10 (7 June 2014)

I think in terms of being able to portray real emotion on screen and capture the perfect amount of sadness with just one face, there is no one better in Hollywood than Shailene Woodley. Whether it's the one short scene in Divergent or the near 10 scenes in this movie, she is perfect at crying. And for the most part, the entire cast executes as well. Ansel Elgort was surprisingly great as the cocky but truly caring Augustus Waters. Laura Dern perhaps had one of the best performances of her career and even Sam Trammel, Nat Wolff and Willem Dafoe shined in their small but significant roles. As much sadness as this movie will bring to people, especially those who have had or know somebody who has had cancer, it can also be very uplifting.
From what I hear, the movie is nearly a perfect transition from book to film, and I can say there isn't much they could have done better. It does take awhile for the emotional scenes to hit, but when they do it's hard to hold back the tears. Also, i really liked how the trailers gave us the gist of the story without showing too much. I was surprised a few times with where the story went, and I compliment 20th Century Fox for giving us a great marketing campaign.
The chemistry within the entire cast was impeccable. If i'm comparing it to Spectacular Now, I would say this movie has the edge in balancing emotion with slight humor, and even being more gutsy. As Shailene Woodley said, there aren't many movie posters that show a beautiful girl using an Oxygen Tank. They very easily could have taken Shailene Woodley and Elgort and just left out any signs of cancer. Woodley has a bright future and if she keeps choosing her roles wisely, then she will one day hold an Oscar.
Like I said there are roughly 8-10 scenes where you may cry, and for a film to do that and still manage to be uplifting at the same time is quite the accomplishment. It's one of my favorite movies of the year so far, and for the performances and near perfect directing it should be seen in theaters.
+Woodley is getting better and better
+Emotional scenes hit the exact right amount of times
+Few surprises
+Depressing, but still manages to be uplifting at the same time.
9.6/10