{"id":31182,"date":"2014-06-09T10:16:37","date_gmt":"2014-06-09T14:16:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=31182"},"modified":"2014-06-09T10:16:37","modified_gmt":"2014-06-09T14:16:37","slug":"the-fault-in-our-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2014\/06\/the-fault-in-our-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Fault in Our Stars\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bob Garver<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever heard an audience collectively cry as much as they did at my screening of \u201cThe Fault in Our Stars.\u201d It should come as no surprise, really. The film is a love story about two teenagers with cancer. There are highs to be sure, but we know the lows are coming. Let\u2019s just say that this won\u2019t be one of those YA adaptations that gets a whole series with the final book being split into two movies. And yet, even though we have good idea what looms ahead, that doesn\u2019t make it any less saddening.<\/p>\n

The film is based on a YA (Young Adult) novel by John Green, one that I\u2019ve heard of for once. I\u2019m glad that kids are reading this hard-to-market book. It\u2019s not that I object to \u201cTwilight\u201d or \u201cThe Hunger Games\u201d per se, but I am tired of books and movies insisting that they\u2019re the \u201cnext\u201d in those lines. Of course, it would have been cool to think that some studio executive took a chance on such tragic subject matter as an original pitch, but I guess some publishing executive took on that challenge.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The film stars Shailene Woodley as Hazel, our 17-year-old heroine who was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 13. She was very close to death at one point, but thanks to some experimental medicine is now relatively better. \u201cRelatively\u201d meaning that she\u2019s constantly bedridden and is hooked up to an oxygen tank at all times, but at least she isn\u2019t being called to walk into the light. Woodley was terrific in \u201cThe Descendants,\u201d my favorite movie of 2011, and still this is by far her best performance.<\/p>\n

Hazel is dragged to a support group by her parents (Laura Dern and Sam Trammell, who steal a lot of scenes in this movie). There she meets Gus (Ansel Elgort), a fellow survivor who is missing part of his leg. The two start a cute friendship that is destined to turn into a passionate romance. Their date scenes are enjoyable enough, though about what you\u2019d expect. They share wisdom, debate philosophies, and engage in some self-deprecating humor. It\u2019s typical romantic comedy stuff in a movie that will not end as a romantic comedy.<\/p>\n

Things get steamy when Gus performs an act of kindness for Hazel and takes her to Amsterdam. There they are drawn together closer than ever by graceful champagne, cultured food, and their admiration followed by disillusionment with author Peter Van Houten (Willem Dafoe), a character we can tell we\u2019re not going to like the second we lay eyes on him. They visit the Anne Frank house, where they share a romantic moment in a frankly inappropriate setting. They do so during a portion of their audio tour where an optimistic Anne talks about the beauty of the world, but it\u2019s still weird.<\/p>\n

Then comes the sad part. There\u2019s no sugar-coating it \u2013 their deterioration affects us. Even though we\u2019ve only spent a short time with these characters, we\u2019ve come to love them. Not unlike their relationship with each other really. In a move of bad taste, the managers of my theater took this opportunity to pump dust and onions through the ventilation system during these scenes. At least I assume they were, based on my physical reaction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Fault in Our Stars\u201d is the next great American weepie. It isn\u2019t a depressing movie so much as a highly emotional one. There is something comforting about being in a theater or room full of people going through this rocky ride of emotions alongside you. It\u2019s like that Elton John song where we\u2019re all united by sad songs (I forget its title). And make no mistake, there will be large groups of people watching this film together for quite a while.<\/p>\n

Two and a Half Stars out of Five.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Fault in Our Stars\u201d is rated PG-13 for thematic elements, some sexuality and brief strong language. Its running time is 125 minutes.<\/p>\n

Contact Bob Garver at rrg251@nyu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bob Garver \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever heard an audience collectively cry as much as they did at my screening of \u201cThe Fault in Our Stars.\u201d It should… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31182"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31182\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}