Shailene Woodley gives phenomenal performance in a solid film

Rating: 9/10 (23 May 2015)

This movie took me by surprise. Usually this kind of young adult fare isn't something I go for.. Too watered down and formulaic. And although this one does sometimes stray into pandering melodrama, it's for the most part made with a blunt, matter of fact clarity and heart wrenching realism that needs to be commended. Shailene Woodley has been on the map for a while now, and although she sometimes phones it in in mediocre projects (cough Divergent cough), she has a magnetic star quality and gravitas that pulls you in. She is unbelievable here, playing a hard luck girl in an agonizing situation that no one should have to go through. There are two scenes that she just nails, and raise her performance to award worthy quality. After seeing her in Descendants, White Bird In A Blizzard and now this, I can say she's a new favourite. Ansel Elgort is charming, life affirming as gives excellent work as a fellow cancer patient who falls madly in love with Woodley's character, Hazel Grace. Old pros Laura Dern and Willem Dafoe are superb in supporting roles. At one point Dern say something like " It's how people have always dealt with pain... You just do it." This film takes that simple piece of advice and makes its characters make decisions and act accordingly.. Yes what they are going through is horrible, heartbreaking, tragic stuff, but it doesn't cancel out the fact that you are LIVING through it, and can make the choice to do just that: live with whatever time you have, and deal with it as best you can. This is what sets the film apart from a lot of other films of its type.