Movie Review : The Fault in our Stars

I am not the one for whiny teen romance flicks...I am just not. But a friend of mine insisted that I watch this movie. I thought to myself "Ugh, whatever..." and I gave this movie a try expecting it to suck, but to my surprise, It was not half bad!

Was it whiny? Yes. Was it a teen flick? Yes. Romance? Yes. So what made this movie stand out for me? The premise and the characters. The movie is a 'by-the-book' (literally) love story with the inclusion of cancer into the formula. The protagonists of the story suffer from cancer and (unfortunately) fall in love. The way they embrace their inevitable doom with utmost optimism is the crux of the story.



The movie expects you to understand the pain that these cancer patients go through and I think it did a fairly decent job of doing that. However, I felt that the movie was slowing down a bit in the middle and therefore, it was on the lengthier side.

The actors, including the supporting cast, were exceptionally good with their performance and the dialogue delivery was outstanding. Anything with Willem Dafoe in it, sign me up. I love that guy! However, I felt that the male protagonist, who is supposed to be charming and optimistic, was a bit creepy. The way he stares at that girl while talking gave me a slight chill and I was expecting an assault, sooner or later. Another thing that bugged me was that both these characters  looked healthy for cancer patients. I mean, I am not a M.D. but I do know that cancer patients look like they suffer from cancer, and not like models in stock photographs. But that's just me.

Some of the quotes in this movie are also memorable and deserve special mention. My favorite of all was this:

"There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities."

I heard that the ending of the book is slightly different from that of the movie. To me, the ending of the movie was okay. My definition of an ending of a good drama is that which makes me think about it days after I watch the movie. I expected a proper closure that felt touching but I simply could not find one. Was the movie good? Yes. Was it a tear-jerker? Nope, not to me. Does it deserve an 8 on IMDB? Nopity nope. 

People who adore teen romance would have already watched this movie, I suppose. Those who are split between downloading this movie or GTA V, I'd suggest you go with GTA. You can watch this movie online and If you like it, then, by all means, go for it. Is it absolutely necessary as an avid movie watcher to watch this movie? Not necessarily. You won't be missing much, trust me.

Score - 6.5/10