“Fault in Our Stars:” You Will Weep
By Skip Sheffield
Need a good cry? “The Fault in Our Stars” is a sure bet to
get the waterworks working.
“The Fault in Our Stars” is the most effective tear-jerker
since “Love Story.” Indeed it blows away that sappy 1970 doomed romance.
A young guy named Josh Boone (“Stuck in Love”) directed
“Fault” and Scott Neustader adapted John Green’s novel. Neustader previously
showed his bittersweet romance chops with “(500) Days of Summer” in 2009 and
“Spectacular Now” in 2013.
Not coincidentally, Shailene Woodley starred in “Spectacular
Now” and plays the principal role of Hazel Grace Lancaster in “Fault.”
Hazel is only 17 and is a terminal thyroid cancer patient. The
cancer has damaged her lungs so badly she has to lug around an oxygen tank for
the tubes in her nose that enable her to breathe.
Hazel’s mother Frannie (Laura Dern) frets that Hazel is
depressed.
“Depression is not a side effect of cancer,” Hazel says.
“It’s a side effect of dying.”
Nevertheless Hazel agrees to go to a cancer support peer
group where she meets Augustus “Gus” Waters (Ansel Elgort), a plucky 18-year-old
cancer survivor who has lost a leg to the disease. Gus has a good friend Isaac
(Nat Wolff) who has lost an eye to cancer and stands to lose his remaining good
eye to save his life.
This all may sound rather morbid, but it is not. Hazel, Gus
and Isaac are witty, funny characters and they speak words that get directly to
the heart of the matter. They also get angry and do foolish juvenile things.
Hazel and Gus are both avid readers, and Hazel turns on Gus
to her favorite novel, “An Imperial Affliction,” by a mysterious author named
Peter Van Houten (Willem Dafoe). Through somewhat miraculous circumstances Gus
gets through to Van Houten’s personal assistant Lidewij (Lotte Verbeek), who
lives with him in Amsterdam. Taking advantage of a Make-a-Wish grant, Gus books
passage for Hazel, her mother and him to Amsterdam to meet the reclusive author
and to find out why his book drops off in mid-sentence.
After a magical dinner with Dom Perignon champagne courtesy
Peter Van Houten, Hazel and Gus finally met the author. To say he was
uncooperative is an understatement. He is an insulting, condescending, surly
drunk. So much for an idealized image of a brilliant writer.
What makes “Fault” so effective is that is balances mawkish
sentiment with hard slaps of reality. We know the outcome of the story but we
are drawn in anyway. Be advised to bring along some tissues. You will need
them.
My prediction is that we will be hearing from Shailene
Woodley at Oscar nomination time.
No comments:
Post a Comment