If it was loathe that I felt with John Green's bestselling cancer-teenage love story The Fault in Our Stars (read my book review here), then it was impatience that I felt with Josh Boone's film adaptation.
The source material is a sappy love story between cancer-stricken teenagers, Hazel and Gus, who are "blessed" to have found each other in their limited time on Earth. Just the idea of cancer interfering with first love, youth, and time evokes emotional despair and existential and spiritual thoughts, so the plot will most likely work— if the storytelling is done masterfully.
In the book, John Green created characters so afraid of sounding like Bella and Edward that he decorated their lines with intellectual and pretentious phrases. Also, he tells a story with not much conflict going on, except the cancer itself, so it's the job of the movie-makers to retell the story in a sincere and powerful fashion.
The movie adaptation, penned by Green himself, along with Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber of 500 Days of Summer, is a direct copy-paste of the book. No creative liberties were taken. Strictly tethered to the book, with very little creativity, mobility, and imagination for silver-screen storytelling, it ends up with no cinematic feel to it. The pages of the book simply runs through your mind as you watch the movie, which was overstretched to two hours of conversations, captured with mostly stationary shots.
It's Shailene Woodley who shines in the movie, perfect as our female protagonist. She delivers an effortless, natural performance, bringing rawness, beauty, and substance to the character of Hazel Grace. Ansel Elgort, though, is the opposite. His Augustus Waters is simply tall and baby-faced, so theatrically fake and scripted that he has to shake his head to emphasize all his emotional points. Unlike Woodley, who gives a soulful performance, Elgort simply arranges his facial muscles, makes bodily gestures, vigorously shakes his head, and produces tears to convince you.
Willem Dafoe as the absurdly cruel character of Van Houten is highly effective; Laura Dern is sadly underutilized as Hazel's mother, a character so insignificant that she's like a fixture no different from a corner desk. And most of the time, I wished that the more natural Nat Wolff played Gus instead of the eye-cancer patient, cliche-ish buddy Isaac. Soundtrack is lovely; you can't wait to get home and add the songs to your playlist.
I recommend fans to see it, as last night's press screening audience was highly reactive and burst into an appreciative applause when the end credits rolled. Those who hated the book, there's nothing for you here; skip it. For first-timers of John Green's best-selling story, well, I leave the decision to you.
2 out of 5 stars
Opens June 5 in Philippine cinemas
Photo source: www.rottentomates.com
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