TFIOS Movie Review: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

There has been so much controversy and debate over the Fault in Our Stars movie. Some claim that it's flawless, and yet others are determined to bash every tiny detail about it. I am not on either side of this coin, but rather, somewhere in the middle.

This review is not spoiler free. (Sorry!) So if you haven't read the book or seen the movie and you don't want to know the ending, then please come read this review after you read/watch it.

The Good:
Let's start with the good things I liked about the film.

For a movie adaptation of a book, I thought that it was very faithful to the book in ways that some other movies are not (*coughcough* Harry Potter, Eragon, Percy Jackson, etc.*coughcough) Almost all of the lines were direct quotes from the book, and that made me happy. There's nothing worse than seeing a good book ruined because one of the actors decided to start yodeling without reason.

Even though it was so faithful to the book, there were things cut out. But, I don't think that that took away from the movie at all. For instance, they cut out the scenes featuring Kaitlyn, one of Hazel's old friends. In the book, it was nice seeing how Kaitlyn represented the life Hazel would have had if she hadn't been diagnosed with cancer, but she wasn't all that important. The movie was already fairly long, and I don't think that her not being in the movie took anything away from it. Along those same lines, the movie also makes no mention of Augustus's former girlfriend, and again, I feel like it's not that big of a deal. In the book it was nice to get to know his life in that way, but in the movie there wouldn't have been enough time to go into depth about that situation. They'd only have time to touch on it and then move on. It wouldn't feel connected to the story if they'd kept it in.

The actors were very well chosen for their roles. Hazel and Augustus and their parents were all played by very talented actors and actresses who brought their characters to life. The only actor who I had wished carried his weight a bit more was the one who played Isaac. Peter VanHouten's actor surprised me a bit because I was expecting a chubby guy, but he played his part as the slimeball drunk man very well.

The movie also did well to transition (most of the time) from the good parts of Hazel's life, to the harsher side that showed the reality that her cancer isn't something to breeze over. Contrast isn't always pulled off easily, but I think that they did well to show it. The emotions in these contrasting scenes was well done, and made it easy for me to get into the movie.

The Bad:
Now that I've explained some of the good parts of the film, here comes the bad parts.

Thank you, sad Hazel gif, for the transition.

This movie is by no means perfect. It was done well, but like all movie adaptations, there were parts where I wasn't so fond of what I saw.

For example, the actor who played Isaac didn't play his part as well as I had hoped he would. During the scene where Isaac's just been through the roughest time after his girlfriend breaks his heart, he comes to Augustus's house to let off some steam and get some brotherly support from his best friend. In this book, this scene for the characters is a little bit awkward and full of rampaging emotions. In the movie, however, it was treated almost as a comedic scene. Sure, we're sorry for Isaac and his cancer eyes, but we're also laughing at him as he breaks trophy after trophy, all the while shouting and screaming. It was a little too lighthearted, I felt; a bit too much of a change from the book. That scene should have packed a little more punch.

There were also some changes that differed from the book that took away from the overall plot.

When Hazel and her mother go to Gus's house just before leaving for the airport to Amsterdam, in the book they overhear Gus and his mother yelling at each other. This part in the book foreshadows a later event where you realize that Gus has been dealing with cancer too. It's not just Hazel anymore. I really don't know why they changed this scene. In the movie they simply have Gus show up in a limo to pick up Hazel and her mother instead. Even though later in the movie it's more surprising that you find out Gus's secret since you had no hint beforehand, I feel like foreshadowing it would've made it more dramatic like it was in the book. It really wouldn't have taken that much time out of the movie either.

Some of the music placement in the movie felt awkward. It would be a quieter scene, and the BAM the music would start pumping. It felt out of place, and in other scenes where music would've been good, there was only silence. I think some of that could've been better done.

Transitions in the movie were good for the most part, but some of them felt jumpy to me. For instance, the scene just before Gus's little gas station excursion was bright and happy, and then they just cut to that scene and the hopelessness of it. There wasn't really a good line or anything that helped ease the transition. The line of dialogue that Hazel had really didn't help much in that case.

I also wasn't so sure how I felt about how they showed Hazel and Gus's text conversations in the movie. I think it was good that they didn't just show us her phone the entire time, but sometime the text bubbles felt a little bit cheesy. I wish they'd done something more like they'd done for the emails, by just popping the screen up so we could see it and the actor at the same time.

Final Thoughts:

This is by no means a negative review. I would give this movie just over 4 stars on a scale of 5. I can't give it a full 5 stars because of the things I pointed out in my review, but overall I think it was very well done for a movie adaptation of a popular book. There were pros and cons to it, but there really wasn't anything that made me completely furious and convinced me it was horrible.

Even though the idea of love at first sight is a little far fetched, I feel like John Green helps smooth that over by having them actually get to know each other more before the big "I love you!" is spat out. As they get to know more about each other, that's when they begin to like each other more, which is how it actually works.

I'm sure some of you are wondering how I felt about the scene in Amsterdam where Hazel and Gus have their little moment. Personally, I think they could have done less to play up that scene. It wasn't as massively played up in the book, and during some parts of that scene I feel like they should have shown less than what they did. But, it could have been much worse, and I'm glad that this scene wasn't as sketchy as it could have been.

As for the way Augustus's death was portrayed, I feel like in both book and movie it was very well done. I know for a fact that some people argue that John Green did a sloppy job of killing him off, but I disagree. The thing is, there are real people who have lost people to cancer. The last thing they want is to read a very detailed death about a character with cancer. People also don't want to see that in a movie. It was just a more gentle way to go about it, and I don't think that's a bad thing. Also, it was more real just having Hazel find out over the phone. You won't always be there to document someone's death, so why would Hazel? She wasn't able to be with Gus 24/7, and I think that's why there wasn't as much description about how he died, other than he went unconscious beforehand. I cried during this part of the movie, something that didn't happen when I read the book. The emotions were just so real and fresh for me, and just seeing the actors react to his death was what did it.

Even though this movie wasn't perfect,  it's definitely one of my favorites.

And that, my friends, is all.

Cheers,
Seana