But as the wounded parties, Hazel and Augustus-and to some degree, Augustus’ buddy Isaac (Nat Wolff), who’s lost one eye to cancer and is about to lose the other-have far more freedom to make grim jokes and toy with flippant or heartfelt philosophies.
Their parents hover nervously, trying to support the young couple without smothering them, and trying to stay upbeat without crossing over into Pollyanna territory. Augustus is cancer-free after aggressive treatment that cost him his leg and his sports career. (It’s presided over by a painfully sincere, lonely testicular-cancer survivor played by comedian/author Mike Birbiglia.) Hazel, whose illness has left her with dangerously compromised lungs, has come to terms with the fact that she’s slowly dying, though her parents (Laura Dern and Sam Trammell) seem determined to deny it. The film follows cautiously in its footsteps rather than choosing its own course, but given how many wrong turns were possible with this material, for once that seems the smart choice, rather than the craven one.ĭivergent stars Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort reunite as Hazel and Augustus, two teenagers who meet cute at an awful, awkward support group for cancer sufferers. Green’s story, about two cancer-stricken teenagers navigating a fragile first (and seemingly last) romance, found the narrow route between sentimentality and cynicism, between bathos and bitterness.
But strict fidelity to the material was a wise move for the team behind John Green’s young-adult bestseller The Fault In Our Stars, because the original novel traverses such a thin tightrope over such a vast abyss. Book-to-film adaptations that stick too closely to the text sometimes feel stiff and stifled prioritizing fidelity over creative freedom can hamstring a movie.
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