"...deservedly egged by a blind man."
Let's just get this out of the way while I have your utmost attention: the book was better.
But isn't that how it always goes? A screen is a screen and words on a page are words on a page. There is a way to fill the screen with metaphors and feelings and an aura of exactly what the director wants to convey, but that art form is reserved, it seems, for original works and true stories that can be told any which way. It is not an art form reserved for bringing books, which already possess their own metaphors and feelings and auras, to life in the same way they survive in the hearts of their readers. So books are made into cinematic spectacles, complete with props, one liners, and CGI magic meant to play out a good-enough story, which is both mildly confusing to those who have never read the book, and mildly disappointing to those who have.
That being said, director Josh Boone makes a valiant effort to bring The Fault in Our Stars to life. The voice overs are sweet and necessary, the scenes flow well, and the tear-jerker moments are real, despite the well-known fact that John Green's great love story is a bit contrived. But not in a bad way. Green is famous for his pixie-dream-child characters, of which Augustus Waters is no exception. Ansel Elgort plays Gus with all the finesse and truth that readers have come to love, and Shailene Woodley - soft, sarcastic, and honest - shares a chemistry with him that is rarely matched in Hollywood productions. She is effortless.
Yes, there are many things from the book that were left out. Augustus' last girlfriend, for example, whose death from cancer is one of the biggest reasons Hazel realizes she will hurt Gus in the end. Gone, too, are the magical tree petals that litter Amsterdam during the couple's trip, and the blind version of Augustus and Isaac's favorite novel-turned-video game, on which Isaac commands the game character to "hump the moist cave wall". The movie also forgoes Mr. Lancaster's insight that the world just wants to be noticed, in favor of really driving home the "some infinities are bigger than other infinities" point.
However, this is not a disappointing movie. I was consistently pleased with the inclusion of perfectly in-tact quotes, adorable moments of Gus-y-ness, and the famous Green venn diagrams. One of the most enjoyable pieces of the film was Nat Wolff, who is the perfect manifestation of the Isaac I imagined while reading the books. His humor and misery and revenge and friendship are an immense part of this film, and Wolf was fantastic in each of his scenes. Peter Van Houten [ahem, the genius Willem Dafoe], too, was exactly right, and I was glad that the film did not sugar coat his drinking or his tactlessness.
The film, truthfully, did not sugar coat anything. Yes, Hazel and Augustus had a fabulous time being in love in Amsterdam, and yes, not all teenagers build their lives around metaphors, but the movie told a realistic story about two dying people who were not always brave soldiers in the cancer war, but did try to be alive to the world while they still lived. "The world," as Gus puts it, "is not a wish-granting factory."
And all this coming from the fingertips of a man who devotes his life to reducing world suck.
In any event, I am a very happy fan who cried her eyes out at the theatre, and who is very glad that I have a copy of a great novel by my bedside, with a few secrets inside that will never be seen on-screen. I am also an ecstatic Nerdfighter, who is quite happy that a good man got to see his story come to life, and that he gets to share this experience with one hell of a brother and an extremely loyal fandom.
Thanks for the tears, John. I hope some part of Esther snuck into a theatre today and felt your intense love with the rest of us.
DFTBA,
Laney
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