Caffeinated Clint
“The world is not a wish-granting factory.”
Sound the distress signal! No plie is safe!
My advice to the tissues out there : slip from the top pocket, whisk yourself into the aisle, and cloak yourself behind a tossed popcorn bucket. The alternative? Slime – and lots of it. From the eyes to the nose to the wet debris of the cheeks… it will come, and there’ll be nowhere to hide!
“The Fault in Our Stars” will single-handedly spike the Kleenex death toll.
Based on the similarly eye-flooding book of the same name, “Stars” is a very sweet but sad teen romance that educates and enriches as much it entertains. Unlike most other films that carry the ‘youngsters in love’ tag, it’s set in our world – as opposed to that blinky-eyed, butterfly-buzzing haven beyond the screen where Michael Schoeffling and Molly Ringwald come together at a kitchen table for a 16th birthday kiss, and Freddie Prinze Jr manages to convince Rachel Leigh-Cook he’s more than the weight of his jock jacket. This ‘anti’ teen-romance movie is grounded, devoid of fluff, does away with a ‘happily ever after’ ending, and mostly, skips on the OMD. And the pragmatism is what transports “The Fault in Our Stars” to a whole next galaxy, far beyond the juvenile romances of cinema yesteryear.
As our lead character says at the beginning of the film, “I believe we have a choice in this world about how to tell sad stories. On the one hand, you can sugarcoat it. Nothing is too messed up that can’t be fixed with a Peter Gabriel Song. I like that version as much as the next girl does. It’s just not the truth.”
You’ve had plenty of fruit salad, now it’s time to dig into the chicken breast – it’s good for you.
Hazel (Shailene Woodley) describes herself as a ticking time bomb – but Cancer will do that. She seems to be just waiting around for the boom. And fair enough. Though not big on socialising, her mother’s insistence leads her to a support group, there she immediately catches the eye of courteous Gus (Ansel Elgort), who lost a leg to the disease. He’s only there supporting a friend.
Hazel and Gus begin to grow closer – thanks to a mutual love of movies, music and literature – and things get serious just as Hazel’s health takes a turn for the worse.
“Gus, I’m a grenade”, Hazel informs her love-struck beau. “One day, I’m going to blow up, and I’m going to obliterate everything in my wake. And I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I am in love with you Hazel Grace”, responds Gus. “And I know that love is just a shout into the void and that oblivion is inevitable…and I am in love with you. All of your efforts to keep me away from you are going to fail.”
A secondary subplot strings the main thread together. Hazel’s found comfort in a book about a young girl, also with Cancer, who feels exactly the same about the disease as she does. The book leaves her hanging though – it doesn’t give her the answers she’s looking for, so she writes to the author who invites her to meet in Amsterdam.
With the assistance of her ever-loving beau Gus, Hazel’s able to convince her doctors that she should be allowed to take the trip and so sets off – with boyfriend and mother (Laura Dern) in tow – to Amsterdam to get the answers she so desires. The trip is a memorable one for a whole different set of reasons.
It’s the realism of “Stars” that sees it effortlessly make out with the lump in your throat. From the credible and amazing performances of its two leads (Shailene Woodley has emerged as one of today’s best young actresses – here, she embodies true leading-lady potential; Ansel Elgort is as equally as good, serving up a wide-ranging, eye-catching and likeable performance) to the realistic but heartbreaking story being told (you know walking in, there’s not going to be a happy ending for anyone here), there’s nothing inauthentic about the film. I pinched the reel – and its reflex suggested it was the real deal. True. Not a false beat in director Josh Boone‘s orchestra.
In its depiction of terminal illness, Boone’s adaptation doesn’t attempt to evoke sympathy from the audience, nor does it ask you to pity the lives the leads have been granted. The film almost offers a positive spin – not unlike Gus does every few minutes in the movie – on cancer, reminding audiences that until you’ve breathed your last breath, you’re still alive and should embrace that. Inspiring. It also reminds that even a short but well-lived life is far from a waste — one can search forever for that special thing that makes their life complete or, like Hazel and Gus, they can find it in just a few months.
“You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I can’t tell you how they cry out for a little infinity.”
“The Fault in Our Stars” is a movie that will ultimately still stir sniffles and flip smiles (particularly knowing how it’s going to turn out for the central characters), but it might also slap a few of the living dead out there into a new beginning, where they’ll start to make the most of their being.
Everyone will get something out of this – but especially those who’ve been working themselves over for months to years on end because of something that was out of their hands. Find happiness where you can, push on even when you think you can’t, and keep the tragic losses locked behind the padlock guarding your heart – after all, they’re yours.
“I will not tell you our love story, because—like all real love stories—it will die with us, as it should.”
Amen.
