The Fault in Our Love Stories Not Present in FIOS

Rating: 9/10 (8 June 2014)

All too often, I see melodramatic cancer movies (i.e. MY SISTER'S KEEPER) that try so hard to make you cry and just relieve the target audience of the book. So many of these films along with the other horrible love stories eventually become the same level of cheese as anything you'd see on the Hallmark channel you watch to get a few laughs in your days. But in THE FAULT IN OUR STARS (FIOS), it may be the sense of self- awareness it has, or the beautifully crafted characters, director Josh Boone finds a way to make a genre- defying love story that will undoubtedly stand the test of time.
Hazel Grace Lancaster, presented in the Oscar-worthy performance by Shailene Woodley, has established herself in the beginning as a cancer patient who has long since come out of the acceptance stage of dying and transformed into the waiting stage, which makes for an extremely interesting and immersive character to gain a mind set. Never has a simple love story delved into such raw human emotion and been so genuine in presenting true human thought process. When Hazel is introduced to Agustus Waters, played by Ansel Elgort, she is given a "little infinity" that blows any charming a man has ever done to a woman in a movie. A series of events happen, and a depressing final act ensues, but for some reason, you come out of the theater feeling refreshed. Relieved that is, that there is still some hope in the romantic genre, that films still know how to develop multiple-leveled characters all the while creating an iconic film still accessible to the mainstream audience.
The major, and only flaw, this film has is in the character Agustus. While he is very touching and genuine as the recovering cancer patient, he seems to have a tad but too much self-awareness of exactly how charming he is. I don't want to use the term cock to describe how he comes across, but in some instances, that's the only term I can describe his reactions to lines of other characters, etc. He has one scene in particular that is supposed to be sad but I couldn't help but burst out laughing from the facial expressions. But other than that, FIOS is a leap forward in the romance genre and will provide grief for all romantic films to come since they will not be able to live up to this film. GRADE: A-