Largely formula but with some interesting twists

Rating: 7/10 (24 June 2014)

Let's be honest with ourselves - this is a love story in the same vein as Romeo and Juliet and, well, Love Story.
OK - spoiler alert ahead
The move concerns two teenagers who are both fighting cancer. The girl - Hazel - has a cancer that is slowly destroying her lungs. The boy, Gus, lost a leg to cancer. Hazel starts out as tragic, but learns to live again by her relationship with Gus. Gus is an unusual character. He refuses to be overwhelmed by his cancer, or at least tries to make his mark on the world.
This is pretty much the film. It would be just another piece of mindless fluff designed for a female audience (and to be honest with you, there were about 20 women to every guy in the theater)except for the teenagers' wit. A classic line is when Gus, Hazel and a third boy, Issac (he lost both eyes to cancer) decide to egg the house of Issac's ex-girlfriend. When the mother of the girlfriend comes out, Gus announces that between the three of them they have 5 legs, 4 eyes, two pairs of working lungs and the mother had better get back in the house.
There is also a meeting with an author of a book that holds great significance to the teenagers. They arrange to meet him in Amsterdam. Not surprisingly, to me anyway, the guy turns out to be a total jerk.
Still, the film is not without some heavy handed references to living in the face of death. While in Amsterdam, the kids go to the Anne Frank museum. Obviously, Anne Frank is a teenager who faced death at a uncertain time. While in the museum, some quotes from Anne Frank that are relevant to the film are conspicuously presented.
Nonetheless, the film doesn't drag, thanks to the humorous bits nicely spaced into the film. It is largely formula, to be sure, although having the boy die instead of the girl was a bit of a surprise. So while it is good, it really is not anything spectacularly special either.