Review: The Fault in Our Stars

Wow, this movie did amazingly well at the box office this last weekend.  Its budget was only about $6 million and it ended up making $48 million!  For those counting, that's a 800% return, not including marketing expenses (which were almost non-existent, as far as I can tell).  I almost always love to see a film with a small budget do well like this.  And while there are many lessons to be taught to Hollywood by its success, I didn't find the film to be very good. 

The film stars the beautiful Shalene Woodley as a teenager with terminal cancer and her ups and downs in that experience.  She eventually meets a boy that is a cancer survivor and they fall in love, but with unexpected consequences. 

The movie does a lot of things right.  Firstly, it allows Shalene Woodley to wear a breathing machine during the whole movie, basically obscuring her beauty.  A major studio wouldn't have allowed that to happen, IMO.  This willingness to go against convention was pretty refreshing.  I also related to the parents and found their performances, especially the mother, to be amazing.

However, I personally had a few problems with it.  The first problem I had was that I just didn't like the male lead.  His personality just rubbed me the wrong way, and I think this was probably the biggest factor in causing me to not like the film.  And it never got better. 

The other problem I had was that in trying to go against convention it tried to be too self aware which just came across as poppy and hipster to me.  I admit I can't really relate to any of the maincharacters (except for the mother) so its attempts to go against the groove just really didn't work for me the way that it was intended to. 

The Fault in Our Stars was not my kind of movie.  It did some very admirable things and had some great performances, but for me it never rose to the level that I wanted it to.  It must be admitted that I am not the target audience for this.  I think I was only 1 of maybe 4 guys in the sold out theater! 

2.5/5 Disco Balls

Parental Guide
Sexual dialogue and images are very present in this film.  There is a sex scene that I was pretty uncomfortable with.  It's also a really heavy subject matter.