By Julia Sheth
Arts Editor
The film “The Fault in Our Stars” captivates audiences, leaving them with moving life lessons and an empty box of tissues.
The film is perfectly cast, contains a heart-wrenching plot and is well-directed by Josh Boone, holding the audience’s attention for the duration of the movie. In addition, the unique cinematography used in the film immediately captivates the audience through eclectic angles and effects. However, the details of the plotline could be improved upon to make the story more cohesive.
Based on the book “The Fault in Our Stars,” by John Green, the movie depicts the tumultuous romance between Hazel Lancaster (Shailene Woodley), a sixteen-year-old girl with Stage IV thyroid cancer, and Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort), an older boy who has osteosarcoma. They stand by each other through the difficult trying to overcome their cancer and quickly begin to fall in love with one another along the way.
The most accurate and memorable aspect of the film is the casting, as all of the characters accurately resemble the character descriptions Green depicted in writing. The actors in the movie do not only display the physical characteristics of the characters in the book, but through the facial expressions, body language and reactions they use, they also show the personality traits, habits and beliefs of the characters in the book.
For example, just as in the book, Woodley uses her emotionally fragile state to portrays Hazel as being reluctant to open herself up to others because of her fear of creating a relationship when death remains a foreboding possibility for her.
The emotionally moving concepts of unconditional love, redemption and tragedy that are continuously displayed throughout the film add deeper meaning to the overall story. This is because these concepts are extremely heart-wrenching, causing the viewer to become empathetic for the young couple’s struggle.
Although the messages in the film can become cliché at certain points, they cause viewers to engage themselves with the movie and its characters. This aspect of the film especially shines through near the end, as the film’s climax captures the emotional turmoil of the conflict as a whole.
Another aspect of the movie that makes the film more interesting to watch is the original cinematography. One example of this is the way the text messages sent between Augustus and Hazel are displayed on the screen as they are received, so the viewer can see the messages and the characters’ reactions simultaneously. This decision allows for greater understanding of the story.
Although this may seem like a trivial part of the film, it adds to the development of the plotline. It further involves viewers in the lives of the main characters, successfully making “The Fault in Our Stars” more relatable.
On top of the genuine acting, emotional topics and interesting cinematography, the way that the film is directed is faithful to the book while keeping the viewer engaged. Boone presents a full development of the characters by showing the progression of their relationship with each other and how they fight their illness.
At the same time, Boone is able to make the plotline flow at a pleasing pace for the viewer by focusing solely on events that are vital to the film.
Although the movie is mostly faithful to the original book, there are a few moments where important details are left out or changed to make the plot move at a quicker pace. At some points, this is disappointing because the missing details gave the story extra information that made the messages of the story clearer.
As a whole, the movie “The Fault in Our Stars” evokes emotion from viewers through an incomparable cast, touching life lessons, engaging cinematography and faithful direction.
Although the details included in the film could be improved upon at some points, the positive aspects of the film outshine the minor flaws of the movie. Thus, overall the film is a positive experience for viewers with an impactful message.
“The Fault in Our Stars” is rated PG-13 and is playing in theaters nationwide.
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