Review of The Fault In Our Stars
Once
or twice a year, I find myself reading a YA novel, it's one of those guilty
pleasures I allow myself from time to time. Last year, I read The Hunger Games trilogy, which I
devoured in two weeks, and by chance since it was highly recommended by
cultural gurus such as Reasonable Discussions
(the disappeared podcast by the AV Club) The
Fault In Our Stars. It was a book about kids with cancer, yes, but no, the
story had something different that thankfully made it a best-seller. I can think
of much worse YA novels to end up in teenagers’ hands. At least this one
featured teenagers I could relate to, as the teenager I once was and as an
adult.
The Fault In Our Stars movie adaptation shared a problem with The Hunger Games trilogy, how to accept actors incarnating
characters that have been so emotionally close to me as a reader? As a teenager,
I read The Outsiders avidly,
cried
like never before with a book and identified amazingly well with
Sodapop, a
character I had nothing in common but the awkwardness of being a
teenager. When reading about Katniss Everdeen and Hazel Grace Lancaster
they became those perfect heroines I
never had in my teens. In my thirties I felt them as fully developed
characters, and went inside their heads as much as I once did with
Sodapop’s.
The
young
adult genre is as rich as irregular, and I can say I still enjoy
approaching
some titles every so often. What I found more interesting and refreshing
about both novels were
these strong female characters with driven, who pull their weight and
make these stories so inspiring. John Green's story had a unique tone, a
little something that I thought difficult to transfer to a movie. Hazel
and
specially Augustus are so unique, so well rounded and charming that I
thought
no cast choice would feel right.
My
admiration goes to Shailene Woodley, who became Hazel on screen and on the off
screen narration, so easy to mess up by over or under acting. I have my
reservations about the choice for Gus, because, come on, who is so charming at
that age? And, how difficult is to shape a quality as abstract as charm? Augustus
has so much more depth in the book, but isn't it because we magnify his charm
to our taste while reading?
There
is one thing that bothered me about the movie, well, no the movie itself, but
its marketing campaign. The movie posters show, instead of the
usual magazine quotes, random tweets about the movie by even more random
people. If I am correct this has been done before for some other movies marketed
to teenagers, and I can’t think of a worse way to discredit a film. I went to
see the movie, because I enjoyed the novel by John Green, but I wonder how many
people will be discouraged by this. I imagine “OMG, I love TFIOS so much!! But
I cried like a baby!” is not going to convince many people to go and see the
movie. But, although there might be some crying involved, I certainly recommend
it, as much as the book.
