the fault in our stars movie review

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, chaz's journal, great movies, contributors, the fault in our stars.

Now streaming on:

It should be agonizing, this tale of doomed love between cancer-stricken teens. It should be passionate, engrossing, suspenseful, something—even unabashed melodrama would have been appropriate, given the subject matter.

Instead, the film version of the best-selling novel "The Fault in Our Stars" feels emotionally inert, despite its many moments that are meant to put a lump in our throats. Perhaps it’s trying so hard to bludgeon us over the head and make us feel deeply that the result is numbing instead. There’s something just off about it for the vast majority of the time—an awkwardness to the staging, framing and pacing in director Josh Boone ’s adaptation of author John Green ’s tear-jerking, young adult phenomenon, and a need to spell everything out.

So much of what worked on the page—and made Green’s writing so lively and engaging—gets lost in translation and feels uncomfortably precocious when actual people actually say his words out loud. (Screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber , who also wrote the romantic charmers " (500) Days of Summer " and " The Spectacular Now ," remained very faithful to the book, which should make the core tween/teen fan base happy. Okay? Okay.)

There’s a specificity to Green’s language; his characters are hyper-verbal, self-aware and fiercely biting in the tradition of " Heathers " and " Clueless ." They know all too well that pop culture depicts cancer—especially young people with cancer—in a mawkish manner that they refuse to accept as they regard their own conditions. But while the flip, jaunty verbosity they use as a shield produces some pleasingly acerbic humor, it often feels forced and false in this setting.

Still, Shailene Woodley ’s abiding, disarming naturalism consistently keeps you engaged. She just doesn’t hit a false note. Following winning turns in the indie dramas " The Descendants " and "The Spectacular Now," and the blockbuster " Divergent ," Woodley continues to cement her accessible and likable on-screen persona. Her work is so strong, it makes you wish she had a better performance to play off of to create the sparky chemistry at the heart of this story.

Woodley stars as Hazel Grace Lancaster, a 16-year-old Indianapolis girl who’s diagnosed with cancer at 13. It weakens her lungs, forcing her to drag an oxygen tank behind her wherever she goes and to stop to rest after climbing a flight of stairs. While her situation looked bleak a few years ago, participation in a new drug trial has prolonged her life for an indefinite amount of time. Her parents ( Laura Dern and Sam Trammell , with whom she shares some lovely, honest moments) try not to hover over their daughter as she attempts to maintain some vague semblance of teenage life, and they even share her fondness for using dark humor to defuse difficult moments.

Mom insists that Hazel attends weekly cancer support group meetings (where comedian Mike Birbiglia is the amusingly earnest leader). There, she meets the handsome and equally loquacious Augustus Waters ( Ansel Elgort , who coincidentally played Woodley’s brother earlier this year in "Divergent"). A former high school basketball star, Augustus lost his right leg below the knee to the disease and now walks with a prosthetic. In Hazel, he immediately recognizes a kindred spirit: a quick-witted smart-ass who can’t take any of the feel-good platitudes seriously.

While Woodley navigates the complexity of Green’s dialogue with ease, Elgort seems stiff and uncomfortable by comparison. His character is meant to be a bit pompous and formal in the beginning but instead comes off as nervous, and even seems to be rushing or slurring his lines at times. Elgort is boyishly handsome (in a way that’s distractingly reminiscent of " Love Story "-era Ryan O’Neal, actually) but never quite radiates the charisma required to keep up with Woodley. Their pairing feels like a missed opportunity.

Hazel and Augustus’ shared love of reading inspires a trip to Amsterdam to seek out the reclusive writer of Hazel’s favorite novel, the fictitious "An Imperial Affliction," which also happens to be about a young woman living with cancer. Willem Dafoe brings a jolt of creepiness to the role of the alcohol-addled author, a rare sensation in a film that too often feels tidy. Their visit also sets the stage for the oddest scene of all (in both the book and the film) when Hazel and Augustus share their first kiss before an applauding crowd of tourists in the attic of Anne Frank’s house. Yeesh.

Yet we know this bliss can’t last. And so "The Fault in Our Stars" descends into major hanky territory with an overpowering assist from a nearly omnipresent soundtrack of wistful alt-rock tunes that tell us what to feel, and when, and how much. (I will happily admit to having tears stream down my face during the third act of Green’s book but, alas, did not get choked up here.)

Theoretically, these iconoclasts wouldn’t want their story to be told in such obvious and heavy-handed fashion. To borrow their favorite line from Hazel’s favorite book: "Pain demands to be felt."

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

Now playing

Find Me Falling

Monica castillo.

Brian Tallerico

The Convert

Sheila O'Malley

Family Portrait

Hollywoodgate

Film credits.

The Fault in Our Stars (2014)

Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, some sexuality and brief strong language

125 minutes

Shailene Woodley as Hazel Grace Lancaster

Ansel Elgort as Augustus Waters

Nat Wolff as Isaac

Laura Dern as Mrs. Lancaster

Sam Trammell as Mr. Lancaster

Willem Dafoe as Peter Van Houten

• Scott Neustadter
• Michael H. Weber

Cinematography

• Ben Richardson

Latest blog posts

The Fairy Tale Shoes: Interview With the Cast and Crew of Cuckoo

On the Trail: India Donaldson on Good One

The Texture of Night: How Collateral Revolutionized Movies

SDCC 2024: Activations, Apes and Other Animals

Film Review: ‘The Fault in Our Stars’

A never-better Shailene Woodley anchors director Josh Boone's tricky cancer-themed melodrama.

By Andrew Barker

Andrew Barker

Senior Features Writer

• Women’s Sports, Live Event Streaming and More Promise Spirited Discussions at Variety’s Sports and Entertainment Summit 4 weeks ago
• L.A. Recording Studios Are Fading, Despite Manifesting Music’s Greatest Hits 1 month ago
• Glen Ballard, ‘Jagged Little Pill’ and ‘Man in the Mirror’ Songwriter, Explains Why Artistry Matters More Than Making Hit Songs 1 month ago

Though it’s correctly categorized as a teen romance, “ The Fault in Our Stars ” is above all a movie about cancer. Cancer provides the butt of the film’s most caustic jokes, provides the magnetic pull that first draws its star-crossed couple together, and provides the power with which the story eventually starts to squeeze its viewers’ tear ducts like water balloons in a pressure cooker. As such, it walks a knife’s edge between heart-on-sleeve sensitivity and crass exploitation for its entire running time, and the fact that it largely stays on the right side of that divide has to mark it as a success. Soulfully acted, especially by a never-better Shailene Woodley , and several degrees smarter than most films aimed at teenagers, this Fox melodrama ought to strike a resonant chord with young audiences.

Related Stories

Reality check: summer hot streak won’t dig u.s. box office out of deep hole in 2024, swifties and deadheads — separated at birth what the eras tour and dead & company’s sphere residency share, as the concert phenomena of the year.

Based on John Green ’s bestselling novel, the film offers the first-person accounts of Hazel Grace Lancaster (Woodley), a bright 16-year-old who can hardly remember not living with cancer. She came perilously close to death as a preteen, but an experimental “miracle” treatment beat her disease back to relatively manageable levels: She has to breathe from a tube tethered to an oxygen tank she lugs around like a carry-on bag, and her lifespan has no clear prognosis, but she’s far from helpless.

Popular on Variety

Her parents (Laura Dern, Sam Trammell) are a loving, lovable pair who worry that Hazel is becoming depressed, as she has no friends and spends her time endlessly rereading reclusive author Peter Van Houten’s postmodern cancer-themed novel, “An Imperial Affliction.” After some insistently gentle prodding, she agrees to attend a weekly church-basement support group hosted by sappy Jesus freak Patrick (Mike Birbiglia).

Here she meets Augustus Waters ( Ansel Elgort ), a strapping, clever, impossibly handsome 18-year-old whose basketball career was cut short when cancer took his right leg, but who appears to have since made a full recovery. He asks Hazel out on a series of chaste hangout dates, reads her favorite book, stays up until the wee hours on the phone with her, and ever-so-gradually brings her out of her shell.

Hazel is a great character, tart without being cynical, vulnerable without being needy, and capable of tossing out bons mots like “I’m the Keith Richards of cancer kids” without seeming like a writerly construct. Augustus is decidedly less developed, essentially functioning as a male version of the types of restorative free spirits usually played by Kate Hudson and Kirsten Dunst in Cameron Crowe movies, and prone to dandyish flourishes  — particularly his habit of brandishing an unlit cigarette as a sort of totemistic charm against death  — that surely worked better as literary metaphors than visual ones. But their rapport is believable, their chemistry palpable, and the film is never more likable than when it unhurriedly lingers on their low-key courtship.

A few weeks into their relationship, Augustus springs a big surprise: Calling in a favor from a Make-A-Wish-type foundation, he’s arranged a trip for the two of them to Amsterdam, where Van Houten (Willem Dafoe) has apparently agreed to sit down with Hazel and answer her infinite questions about his book. (In one of the pic’s most darkly funny scenes, Augustus mocks Hazel for wasting her wish on a trip to Disney World, “pre-miracle.”)

It’s in Amsterdam that the film opens up visually  — ditching the closeups and domestic interior scenes to take in the well-photographed surroundings  — and Hazel and Augustus forge their most affecting connections. It’s also the only section where the film tips fully over into uncomfortable kitsch, as the couple experiences a romantic breakthrough during a visit to Anne Frank’s attic, while voiceovers recite passages from “The Diary of a Young Girl.” The film may get away with using cancer to tug the heartstrings, but combining cancer and the Holocaust is at least one trigger too many.

But this glaring misstep only goes to demonstrate just how well the film has navigated these choppy waters thus far. Director Josh Boone is hardly the most distinctive cinematic stylist, but he’s smart enough to let his scenes linger for a few beats longer than most mainstream directors would, and seems to trust his actors to carry their own dramatic weight.

Woodley repays that trust in spades. With close-cropped hair and minimal makeup, she eschews any overly theatrical tics, rarely oversells her character’s goodness and wit  — even when her lines seem to be begging for it  — and manages to convincingly convey terminal illness without invoking easy pathos. Though her character may be 16, Woodley’s performance is thoroughly adult, and offers a reminder that, while the occasional multipart blockbuster franchise like “Divergent” can theoretically be part of a balanced diet for a young actress, she has much more to offer the cinema than an ability to run through obstacle courses while mouthing mealy mythology.

Woodley’s “Divergent” co-star Elgort can’t match her level of naturalism, and his cocky, smirking self-confidence never quite jibes with his displays of boundless selflessness where Hazel is concerned, but he’s ultimately charming enough to wear down most resistance.

The screenplay, adapted by “The Spectacular Now” scripters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, does contain a few clunkers, and lays it on a bit thick toward the end, with a procession of scenes ruthlessly rigged to target the few remaining dry eyes in the theater. But on the whole, the scribes give their audience a good deal of credit, looping in some interesting references to neuroethics and calculus without overexplaining or dumbing them down.

Reviewed at Fox Studios, Century City, Calif., May 27, 2014. MPAA rating: PG-13. Running time: 126 MIN.

• Production: A 20th Century Fox release of a Fox 2000 Pictures presentation of a Temple Hill production. Produced by Wyck Godfrey, Marty Bowen. Executive producers, Michele Imperato Stabile, Isaac Klausner.
• Crew: Directed by Josh Boone. Screenplay, Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber, from the book by John Green. Camera (color), Ben Richardson; editor, Robb Sullivan; music, Mike Mogis, Nathaniel Walcott; music supervisor, Season Kent; production designer, Molly Hughes; costume designer, Mary Claire Hannan; art director, Gregory Weimerskirch; set decorator, Merissa Lombardo; sound (Dolby/Datasat/SDDS), Jim Emswiller; supervising sound editor, Donald Sylvester; re-recording mixers, Andy Nelson, Sylvester; visual effects supervisor, Jake Braver; assistant director, H.H. Cooper; casting, Ronna Kress.
• With: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Laura Dern, Sam Trammell, Nat Wolff, Willem Dafoe, Lotte Verbeek, Mike Birbiglia.

More from Variety

Molly kearney leaving ‘saturday night live’: ‘it was such a dream come true’, hollywood must define ai technical standards to prep for its future    , jason reitman’s ‘snl’ movie officially titled ‘saturday night,’ sony sets october release date, ‘the fall guy’ sets peacock release date, including extended cut with additional 20 minutes, fine-tuning ai video models getting early interest from film & tv studios, punkie johnson leaving ‘saturday night live’: ‘my time has come to an end’, more from our brands, this back to school sale gets you $100 off bose’s bestselling noise-canceling headphones, this new show at monterey celebrates cars and hip-hop, france aims for record medal haul thanks to de gaulle’s disgust, the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, the drew carey show is streaming for the very first time — find out where.

Advertisement

Supported by

Movie Review

Young Love, Complicated by Cancer

• Share full article

By A.O. Scott

• June 5, 2014

“The world is not a wish-granting factory.” That line, from “The Fault in Our Stars,” is undoubtedly true, and it is also true that the movie, like the book before it, is an expertly built machine for the mass production of tears. Directed by Josh Boone (“Stuck in Love”) with scrupulous respect for John Green’s best-selling young-adult novel, the film sets out to make you weep — not just sniffle or choke up a little, but sob until your nose runs and your face turns blotchy. It succeeds.

But then again, a brief survey of the story and its themes might make you wonder how it could possibly fail. The main character — whose voice-over narration, drawn verbatim from Mr. Green’s pages, frames the story — is Hazel Grace Lancaster, a teenager who has lived most of her life with the metastatic thyroid cancer she expects will end it very soon. She falls in love with Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort), known as Gus, a fellow “cancer kid” who has lost part of his leg to the disease but who has been healthy since then and is determined to lead “an extraordinary life.”

As played by Shailene Woodley, a gifted actress grabbing hold of her moment with both hands, Hazel is witty, compassionate and as lovely as a day in June. Her plucky rejection of the usual “cancer story” sentiments becomes a potent form of sentimentality in its own right, and her brave refusal of self-pity ensures the audience’s infinite sympathy. “The only thing that bites worse than having cancer is having a kid with cancer,” she says, and her compassion is borne out by the stricken faces of her parents (Sam Trammell and Laura Dern, both excellent in thinly sketched roles).

Ms. Woodley plays nearly every scene with a plastic oxygen tube anchored to her nostrils and splayed across her face (Hazel’s cancer affects her lungs), but her un-self-conscious performance is the perfect mirror of her character’s pragmatic temperament. Because she never asks for our approval, we are entirely in her thrall. Gus, meanwhile, is such a handsome bundle of chivalry, positive energy and impish self-deprecation that we may swoon over him even before Hazel does. With an unlighted cigarette wedged into his crooked, cocky grin, he is a perfect romantic hero, complete with a semigoofy sidekick (Nat Wolff).

But what can you say about a girl who ... ? The question is not meant to be a spoiler, but rather a point of reference. A long time ago, a movie called “ Love Story ,” also based on a best seller with terminal illness in its plot, swept through the popular culture and landed its female lead on the cover of Time. The film was potent and memorable without being all that good. And yet it is still possible, all these years later, to laugh at the stilted dialogue and awkwardly staged scenes and find yourself wet-eyed and raspy-voiced at the end.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘the fault in our stars’: film review.

Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort star in Josh Boone's adaptation of John Green's best-selling young adult novel.

By Justin Lowe

Justin Lowe

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Send an Email
• Show additional share options
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Pinterest
• Share on Reddit
• Share on Tumblr
• Share on Whats App
• Print the Article
• Post a Comment

The Fault in Our Stars Woodley Elgort Walking - H 2014

With interest in adapting John Green’s fourth novel running high even before its 2012 debut atop The New York Times best-seller list, Twilight producers Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen managed to snatch up the film rights to the hugely popular narrative, which may have been a bit of a “be careful what you wish for” moment. With the book’s millions of adoring fans eagerly anticipating the movie’s release, a distinct risk of blow-back was practically built in to the project.

Fortunately, director Josh Boone and his filmmaking team appear to have minimized the downside, in part by casting fast-rising star Shailene Woodley in the lead, along with her Divergent franchise co-star Ansel Elgort . Both are likely to be strong selling points with the film’s youth-skewing target audience, which is being further softened up by a robust marketing campaign and Green’s own substantial social media presence. With the onset of summer vacation and few similar distractions in theaters at the outset, The Fault in Our Stars should perform strongly out of the gate, with the potential to show significant staying power in the weeks following.

Related Stories

Jason reitman's 'saturday night' movie trailer teases behind-the-scenes chaos at 'snl', liza minnelli to write memoir on legendary acting, singing career.

If any teenager can reasonably be described as “ordinary,” then 16-year-old Hazel Grace Lancaster (Woodley) is far from it. A cancer survivor since the age of 13, she’s fully in possession of both keen intelligence and sharp wit, if not her health – a challenging combination for a kid who could clearly do with a few more friends than she actually has. Instead, her most constant companions are the oxygen tank connected to the breathing tube that supports her seriously compromised lungs, along with her concerned mother, Frannie ( Laura Dern ), and protective father, Michael ( Sam Trammell ).

Hazel gets a chance to branch out when, at the urging of both her mom and her doctor, she joins an often lame though occasionally amusing church-based cancer-survivor support group, where she meets 18-year-old Augustus “Gus” Waters (Elgort), an equally precocious teen with a rather more constructive outlook than Hazel’s. Despite losing a leg to cancer, his disease is in remission and he’s dreaming of new ways to conquer the world, along with his best friend Isaac ( Nat Wolff ), who’s battling the affliction as well. Irreverent rather than cynical, he freely shares that he intends to “live an extraordinary life” and bonds with Hazel over her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction , written by Dutch-American author Peter Van Houten ( Willem Dafoe ), which just happens to be about living with cancer.

Hazel is borderline obsessed with contacting the elusive Van Houten, but he never responds to her missives. So it’s a bit shocking and even overwhelming when the writer’s assistant replies to an email from Gus soliciting information about Van Houten’s book. Then Hazel gets a message from Van Houten himself, and the author invites her to visit if she’s ever in Amsterdam. Hazel and Gus, who often insists on calling her “Hazel Grace,” quickly cook up a plan to make the trip, but it’s nixed by Hazel’s doctors and parents, concerned that the stress of the journey will strain her lungs and disrupt the experimental cancer-drug treatment she’s dependent on for her survival.

Meanwhile, Gus is falling hard for Hazel, who is fairly smitten herself, but as her condition worsens, she pulls back, telling Gus “I’m a grenade and one day I’m going to explode and obliterate everything in my wake.” Undeterred, he counters that her withdrawal doesn’t lessen his affection for her, and when he manages to find an unexpected method of funding their travel, the plan is back on again. As both teens face suddenly critical health issues, however, the outcome of both the trip and their increasingly romantic relationship becomes appreciably more uncertain.

The greatest strengths of the film clearly come from Green’s novel, which resolutely refuses to become a cliched cancer drama, creating instead two vibrant, believable young characters filled with humor and intelligence, both facing complex questions and issues unimaginable even to people twice their age. Turning the screenwriting over to adaptation experts Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber has preserved the distinctly literate tone of the book, even if they do occasionally deliver scenes that feel overwrought.

The script makes an excellent fit for Woodley, whose feature film career really took off with The Descendants and The Spectacular Now, two similarly smart, self-aware films. Woodley’s wise and accomplished take on Hazel Lancaster will resonate with those inclined to view the world with a somewhat skeptical point of view, although they may face similar resistance to the prospect of romance entering her life. By dint of ample charm and considerable insight, Elgort’s Gus represents more than a foil for Hazel’s self-doubt – he offers her the opportunity to mold all of her hope and frustration into a fully three-dimensional, transcendent emotional experience, whether she wants to call that “love” or not.

As Hazel’s protective but practical parents , Dern and Trammell display a realistic degree of concern without completely smothering her, and when crisis erupts, their instinctual compassion quickly restores calm. Wolff, whose character loses both eyes to cancer, provides some suitably dark humor , although it’s left to Dafoe as the acerbic author whose young daughter succumbed to the disease to deftly deliver the film’s least reassuring perspective.

Boone’s appropriately light touch emphasizes the underlying literary material, foregrounding the performances with occasional underplayed visual humor and reserving stylistic nuance for more contemplative scenes, attractively framed by cinematographer Ben Richardson. Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott’s score somewhat literally underlines the overly insistent, folky-leaning soundtrack selections from the likes of Tom Odell, Lykke Li and Ray LaMontagne.

Production company: Temple Hill Entertainment Cast: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Laura Dern, Sam Trammell, Nat Wolff, Willem Dafoe, Lotte Verbeek, Mike Birbiglia Director: Josh Boone Screenwriters : Scott Neustadter , Michael H. Weber Producers: Wyck Godfrey, Marty Bowen Executive producers: Michele Imperato Stabile, Isaac Klausner Director of photography: Ben Richardson Production designer: Molly Hughes Costume designer: Mary Claire Hannan Editor: Robb Sullivan Music: Mike Mogis, Nate Walcott

Rated PG-13, 125 minutes

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Iraq-born austrian auteur kurdwin ayub keeps it provocative with ‘moon’: “i want to trigger people”, gina gershon recalls nearly breaking “tom cruise’s nose” during ‘cocktail’ sex scene, the real-life event that inspired m. night shyamalan’s ‘trap’, “king khan”: bollywood icon shah rukh khan rules locarno as he receives lifetime award, ‘mexico 86’ review: bérénice béjo toplines a compelling political drama that never drums up enough emotion, lindsay lohan, jamie lee curtis reveal manny jacinto will play lohan’s onscreen husband in ‘freakier friday’.

Common Sense Media

Movie & TV reviews for parents

• For Parents
• For Educators
• Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

• Get the app
• Movie Reviews
• Best Movie Lists
• Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

• Best TV Lists
• Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
• Common Sense Selections for TV
• Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

• Book Reviews
• Best Book Lists
• Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

• Game Reviews
• Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

• Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

• Podcast Reviews
• Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

• App Reviews
• Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

• YouTube Channel Reviews
• YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

• Preschoolers (2-4)
• Little Kids (5-7)
• Big Kids (8-9)
• Pre-Teens (10-12)
• Teens (13+)
• Screen Time
• Social Media
• Online Safety
• Identity and Community

How to Prepare Your Kids for School After a Summer of Screen Time

• Family Tech Planners
• Digital Skills
• All Articles
• Latino Culture
• Black Voices
• Asian Stories
• Native Narratives
• LGBTQ+ Pride
• Best of Diverse Representation List

Multicultural Books

YouTube Channels with Diverse Representations

Podcasts with Diverse Characters and Stories

The fault in our stars, common sense media reviewers.

Heartbreaking love story is a must-see for fans of the book.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The movie, like the book, has important messages a

In many YA/teen stories, the parents are portrayed

The way that cancer physically and emotionally aff

There's one love scene, and it's more emot

One use of "f--k," plus a couple of uses

Brands shown or featured include Apple (iPhone, Ma

Gus has a habit of putting an unlit cigarette in h

Parents need to know that The Fault in Our Stars is a tear-jerking love story about two deep-thinking teens with cancer and is based on one of the most beloved young adult books in recent history, by superstar author John Green. Due to the subject matter, it should come as no surprise that the movie can get…

Positive Messages

The movie, like the book, has important messages about the purpose of life: what it means to make your mark in the world and to be loved and remembered, how love can feel infinite even in a finite number of days, and how what afflicts you isn't what defines you. Most of the messages are about life, love, and relationships -- as well as literature and what it means to feel connected to the books we read. Gus' motto that you can't keep yourself from getting hurt -- but you can choose wisely about who you allow to hurt you -- is a powerful one.

Positive Role Models

In many YA/teen stories, the parents are portrayed as insensitive or even antagonistic, but Hazel's mom and dad are amazing: supportive, loving, and understanding of her needing time and space to be with Augustus. Hazel and Gus don't let their cancer keep them away from each other, and Gus especially feels strongly about surrounding himself with beauty and joy, particularly Hazel.

Violence & Scariness

The way that cancer physically and emotionally affects the teen characters is likely to disturb and upset viewers. A key character's death devastates other characters (as well as the audience). Characters egg another character's car.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

There's one love scene, and it's more emotional than physical in its depiction and doesn't feel gratuitous. It takes place between two teens who are both virgins, and this is their one and only time making love. The girl has her top off, but you just see her back and the boy's chest. Afterward they're shown sleeping in each other's arms. Also a few passionate kisses.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

One use of "f--k," plus a couple of uses of "s--tty," "a--hole," "douchepants," and "goddamn."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Brands shown or featured include Apple (iPhone, MacBook), Converse sneakers, Honda Accord, American Airlines, Barnes & Noble, Mercedes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Super Mario Bros, and a Mitsubishi sports coupe.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Gus has a habit of putting an unlit cigarette in his mouth and letting it dangle there, since unlit it can do no harm (he says it's a metaphor). He goes around with the same cigarette pack for most of the movie. Gus and Hazel drink champagne together twice. Author Peter Van Houten is a drunk and is nearly always shown with a drink or a flask in his hand. Hazel teases her parents that she should be allowed to be a regular teen with a fake ID so she can drink and "take" pot.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Fault in Our Stars is a tear-jerking love story about two deep-thinking teens with cancer and is based on one of the most beloved young adult books in recent history , by superstar author John Green . Due to the subject matter, it should come as no surprise that the movie can get emotionally intense -- especially when there's a devastating death. The central relationship is beautiful and mature and does lead to a love scene, which is handled tastefully for teen audiences (a girl's naked back and boy's chest are seen). Language is rare but does include one use of "f--k," as well as words like "s--t" and "a--hole." The teen characters drink champagne together, and a key adult supporting character is a drunk who's nearly always sipping from something. Gus also frequently puts unlit cigarettes in his mouth. As long as your teens are ready for all the feelings, sadness, and romance, this is a lovely film to watch with them, especially since Hazel's parents are portrayed so positively (they're supportive, loving, and understanding). To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (38)
• Kids say (239)

Based on 38 parent reviews

Way overrated

Mature but nothing most teenagers couldn’t handle, what's the story.

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS is about Hazel Grace Lancaster ( Shailene Woodley ), a 17-year-old book lover dealing with stage-four metastatic cancer that has spread to her lungs, requiring her to wear a cannula and carry around an oxygen cannister. Her worried but supportive parents ( Laura Dern , Sam Trammell ) encourage her to attend a local support group for teens with cancer; it's there that she meets Augustus Waters ( Ansel Elgort ), who can't keep his eyes off her. After group, a clearly interested Gus tells Hazel that she's beautiful and invites her to hang out with him and his best friend, Isaac ( Nat Wolff ). Hazel is attracted to Gus but is hesitant to start a relationship when she knows she's dying. Ever persistent, Gus sweeps Hazel off her feet when he gives up his one "cancer wish" to make her dream come true: traveling to Amsterdam to meet her favorite author.

Is It Any Good?

While The Fault in Our Stars isn't a word-for-word translation (nor should it be), it's an adaptation that does Green, Hazel, and Augustus justice. Anyone who's ever loved a book knows the hesitance and wariness that mingle with excitement when a beloved novel is turned into a big-screen production. There's a sense of panic that the director, screenwriter, and cast won't capture everything you love about the words and characters the author created. But fans of the book needn't worry. Woodley, a Golden Globe nominee and veteran of YA adaptations ( Divergent , The Spectacular Now ), delivers a gentle, wickedly smart Hazel, who feels like a grenade about to go off but eventually realizes that she does deserve to be loved by Gus, even if their future is uncertain.

But as lovely as Woodley is as Hazel, the movie belongs to newcomer Elgort (who co-starred as Woodley's brother in Divergent ), who has the tough job of being solicitous, sexy, smart, and sensitive all at the same time. He manages to pull it off beautifully, never letting the character spin out of control or seem false. The supporting characters also deliver laudable performances: Wolff as Gus' blind best friend, and Dern and Trammell as one of the most loving set of parents ever depicted on page or screen. Viewers will experience the wonder of falling in love but also the pain of knowing that someone you adore is dying. Still, to quote Hazel's favorite book, "pain demands to be felt." And feel it you will, which is more than okay.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about whether The Fault in Our Stars is a successful adaptation. What changes did the filmmakers make, and you do you understand why they made them? What parts of the movie captured the book best, and what parts of the book did you miss not seeing in the movie?

Do you prefer adaptations based on realistic fiction or based on genre fiction, like dystopian/paranormal stories? Why do you think there are so many YA adaptations in the works?

What do you think the author and filmmaker are trying to say about literature and our relationship to books? Do books and movies need a happy ending to make them good or worthwhile? What are some other tales that don't end as you expected but are still among your favorite movies or books?

How does the movie depict sex ? How is it different here from how it's often portrayed in other teen movies/books? Parents, talk to your teens about your own values regarding sex and relationships.

Movie Details

• In theaters : June 6, 2014
• On DVD or streaming : September 16, 2014
• Cast : Shailene Woodley , Ansel Elgort , Willem Dafoe
• Director : Josh Boone
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
• Genre : Romance
• Topics : Book Characters
• Run time : 125 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : thematic elements, some sexuality and brief strong language
• Last updated : June 21, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

Our editors recommend.

Romeo and Juliet

Terms of Endearment

Movies Based on Books

Drama movies that tug at the heartstrings, related topics.

• Book Characters

Want suggestions based on your streaming services? Get personalized recommendations

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Fandango at Home
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• 78% Cuckoo Link to Cuckoo
• 97% Dìdi Link to Dìdi
• 96% Good One Link to Good One

New TV Tonight

• 100% Industry: Season 3
• -- Emily in Paris: Season 4
• -- Bad Monkey: Season 1
• -- Bel-Air: Season 3
• -- Solar Opposites: Season 5
• -- SEAL Team: Season 7
• -- RuPaul's Drag Race Global All Stars: Season 1
• -- Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures: Season 2

Most Popular TV on RT

• 61% The Umbrella Academy: Season 4
• 81% A Good Girl's Guide to Murder: Season 1
• 95% Batman: Caped Crusader: Season 1
• 78% Star Wars: The Acolyte: Season 1
• 84% House of the Dragon: Season 2
• 100% Supacell: Season 1
• 100% Women in Blue: Season 1
• 78% Presumed Innocent: Season 1
• 77% Lady in the Lake: Season 1
• 88% Mr. Throwback: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• 95% Batman: Caped Crusader: Season 1 Link to Batman: Caped Crusader: Season 1
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

50 Best 1980s Cult Movies & Classics

Best Horror Movies of 2024 Ranked – New Scary Movies to Watch

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Awards Tour

Everything We Saw at Disney’s 2024 D23 Entertainment Showcase

The Most Anticipated Movies of 2024

• Trending on RT
• Marvel Movies in Order
• Disney Movies Ranked
• Popular Complete Series
• Re-Release Calendar

The Fault in Our Stars Reviews

The subject matter — a pair of teenage cancer sufferers meet and fall in love — could have been mawkish mush, but there’s a sharp, abrasive wit and anger that tempers the tear-jerking with humour.

Full Review | Feb 13, 2023

It actually presents us with situations and a relationship that feels genuine yet uncertain because of the dark cloud hanging over it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 20, 2022

My biggest complaint about the whole experience was being splashed by the tears of my fellow moviegoers. Bring a towel.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 1, 2021

The reason that The Fault in Our Stars works so well is that its main draw (the teenage love story) is tied so expertly to its emotional core (Hazel's relationship with her parents).

Full Review | Jan 21, 2021

The winning combo of the shamelessly melodramatic and the slyly mischievous that powers the movie owes much to yet another pitch-perfect lead performance from Woodley.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 17, 2020

Sadly, in Hollywood's hands all the things that made John Green's taut, touching and terrific 2012 novel transcend generation gaps have been jettisoned in favour of a hyperglycaemic tale of two star-crossed (cancer-riddled) teens.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Nov 10, 2020

In other words, this is real. If anyone tells you differently, they haven't a clue.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 7, 2020

In a laudable attempt to seem heartfelt without blatant manipulation, the film generally succeeds, thanks especially to a winning performance from Shailene Woodley.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 30, 2019

It's charming, well-written, superbly acted.

Full Review | Original Score: 9.4/10 | Aug 8, 2019

Heartfelt, sincere and altogether rather wonderful, The Fault in Our Stars will enchant audiences and leave behind very few dry eyes in its wake.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 14, 2019

It all felt kind of manipulative and corny.

Full Review | Original Score: D | Apr 30, 2019

Woodley and Elgort are gifted in that they exude intelligence, thoughtfulness, and savvy, making smart dialogue sound smart, the corniest lines sound terribly romantic and natural.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Mar 28, 2019

Under the assured direction of Josh Boone, the film earns its emotions without grand manipulative gestures, and finds its heart through the fantastic cast and an effortless and appealing intimacy between the characters.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 26, 2019

Dafoe is, as expected, solid in the role, but I felt the storyline on the whole could have been a little tighter. That's a minor fault however, in a script whose stars make it all worthwhile.

Full Review | Mar 5, 2019

The talented cast and crew enhance what is already some pretty good material, making "Fault" a teenage tearjerker that doesn't fall into a typical Hollywood weeper formula.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Feb 1, 2019

It's sweet, cathartic and a bit beautiful. Just make sure you bring Kleenex.

Full Review | Jan 31, 2019

In the end, this adaptation may not be all that different than effective screen tearjerkers of the past, but in staying true to its source material, its infinity is bound to be a little bigger than most.

Full Review | Nov 20, 2018

It will certainly be a tearjerker for some, but the film's final triumphant message means that you shouldn't be too depressed when you leave the theatre.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Nov 1, 2018

The two-hour and five-minute running time of continuous sadness and unending pearls of wisdom made this viewer disconnect from the characters.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 21, 2018

The problem may be that The Fault in Our Stars is based on a book by John Green; this certainly wouldn't be the first time a strong literary narrative had troubles translating to the screen.

Full Review | Nov 28, 2017

• Entertainment
• REVIEW: <I>The Fault in Our Stars</i> Earns Its Big Fat Tears

REVIEW: The Fault in Our Stars Earns Its Big Fat Tears

H azel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) and Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort) don’t have absolutely everything in common. For example, her favorite book is the death-drenched An Imperial Affliction , by the mysterious Peter van Houten. His favorite: the novelization of a video game he loves, Insurgent 2 . She’s deep and depressed, he’s all blithe bonhomie.

But both are cancer teens. Augustus, the former basketball prodigy, lost a leg to osteosarcoma; Hazel, with what started as thyroid cancer and has since spread geometrically, lugs around an apparatus the size of a fire extinguisher to pump air into her dilapidated lungs. And if their choice in literature differs, they are together as the heroes of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars , the YA best-seller that is now a pretty fine movie.

(READ: Lev Grossman on John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars )

An adolescent take on the old film weepie Love Story (“What can you say about a twenty-five year old girl who died?”), Green’s book managed to be both bitingly sarcastic and unashamedly uplifting. Having lived with cancer for half of her 16 years, Hazel has developed an emotional auto-immune system: mockery. She greets anyone in authority — her parents, her doctors, the guy who runs the group-therapy session at a local church — with an eyebrow raised in cynical judgment. She has fully earned the attitude held by many teens: that they’re on a desperate adventure adults simply can’t understand. That adage is true for Hazel, who is likely to die before she can legally buy a beer.

Her doctor has advised doubling her meds, but the true antidote is a strong dose of luh-uv. And Augustus is the sweetest Dr. Feelgood. His seeming ease with his prosthesis, and with what doctors tell him is an 85% chance of beating the disease, complements her dour belief: “Depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying.” His Candide and her Cassandra are the perfect match. And what is drama — all drama, really — but the story of beautiful people with horrible problems?

(SEE: A clip from The Fault in Our Stars )

Hazel’s and Augustus’s mutually ticking Doomsday clocks compel them to pack the luster of a lifetime — a first love, a trip to Europe, a meeting with Hazel’s favorite author, a last love — into what may be their only summer. Skeptical Hazel comes alive at the innocent touch of Augustus, whose charm is as urgent as it is benign. He’s like a pop record that has just three minutes to raise your spirits or break your heart. For Hazel, Augustus does both.

They may weave the same magic on moviegoers, so smartly does the film enfold this loving couple in the cocoon of evanescent intimacy. In the screenplay by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber — whose scripts for (50o) Days of Summer and The Spectacular Now also apotheosized the angst and ecstasy of young love — Hazel and Augustus are all either of them needs. The movie gives them exactly one friend, Isaac (Nat Wolff), for misanthropic commit relief, and cannily excludes Hazel’s parents (Laura Dern and Sam Trammell) from the best parts of her luscious, endangered world. Though they have become expert at fretful optimism and pre-grieving, the parents can be chaperones but not confidants. And they must be denied access to their daughter’s tree house of love.

(READ: Corliss’s review of (500) Days of Summer )

Movies about adolescence as a secret garden, where only misfits fit, bloomed in the 1960s, beginning with David and Lisa : Keir Dullea as the boy who won’t let people touch him, and Janet Margolin as the girl with dissociative identity disorder. Otto Preminger’s Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon turned the duo into a trio: a literally and emotionally scarred young woman Liza Minnelli), an epileptic (Robert Moore) and a gay paraplegic (Ken Howard). Love Story , in 1970, streamlined these mental and physical disabilities into the plot wallop of leukemia, which befalls poor girl Ali MacGraw as her rich young husband Ryan O’Neal sobs and endures. All these decades later, The Fault in Our Stars sets the most toxic misery among the most adorable company.

Fault has a few. A meeting in New Amsterdam with Hazel’s favorite author (Willem Dafoe) seems a bilious detour with an improbable payoff. The trip also affords the filmmakers an egregious scene in the Anne Frank House, where a Jewish girl’s descent into the Holocaust is straight-facedly compared to a teen’s cancer. No, we have to say; they’re different. To paraphrase Hazel’s maxim on infinities: some atrocities are bigger than other atrocities.

(READ: Roger Rosenblatt on Anne Frank, one of TIME’s 100 People of the 20th Century )

Yet Hazel and Augustus will live in film lore because of the young actors who play them. Woodley, who graduated from supporting roles (George Clooney’s rebellious daughter in The Descendants ) and indie leads (the bo0kworm in The Spectacular Now ) to her own YA movie franchise ( Divergent ), has the gift of acting internally: she makes you watch her watch something, lets you read the mind of her character like a good book. Often photographed in dermatological closeup, Woodley’s face is its own engrossing movie — an autumnal symphony of darker and lighter browns. She makes Hazel the ideal narrator and receptive audience to Augustus’ agreeable showmanship.

Elgort, who can also be seen as Woodley’s brother in the Divergent films, has a natural screen appeal and suave chemistry with Woodley. He could almost make smitten girls in the audience think it would be worth getting cancer to meet such a paragon. And though you know that Fault , like Love Story , is bound to have a body count, the symbiosis of these stars is so strong, you’ll wish there could be a sequel.

More Must-Reads from TIME

• The Rise of a New Kind of Parenting Guru
• The 50 Best Romance Novels to Read Right Now
• Mark Kelly and the History of Astronauts Making the Jump to Politics
• The Young Women Challenging Iran’s Regime
• How to Be More Spontaneous As a Busy Adult
• Can Food Really Change Your Hormones?
• Column: Why Watching Simone Biles Makes Me Cry
• Get Our Paris Olympics Newsletter in Your Inbox

Contact us at [email protected]

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

• What Is Cinema?

America's Teens May Not Survive the Sweet, Sad The Fault in Our Stars

I’m worried about our teens. Not because of drugs or naughty music or even the state of the economy. No, I’m worried that many of them won’t make it through this coming weekend, reduced to messy puddles of tears and feelings as they will be by the new Y.A. weepie The Fault in Our Stars . Based on John Green’s smash hit novel, TFIOS , as it’s commonly referred to on the Internet, is pitched nearly perfectly in a frequency that many of us can detect, but that particularly sends certain young people into hysterical fits. Meaning, this hugely anticipated movie does exactly the job it’s meant to do. It’s good news for all involved, but I fear many of your daughters, and no doubt some of your sons, are pretty much doomed.

Directed with wit and low-key grace by Josh Boone, TFIOS tells us the sad, sweet story of Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley), a sixteen-year-old Indiana girl who is dying of thyroid and lung cancer. With her post-chemo short hairdo and trusty oxygen tank by her side, we know that Hazel is sick. But because this is a Hollywood movie, she also has a radiance about her that reads as anything but death’s looming specter. That’s partly owed to the movie’s aesthetic, all soft, warm tones, but it’s also because Hazel is played by Woodley, who glows like a California sunset, and seems so good of spirit that she’s like some otherworldly immortal. She’s not badly cast, in fact she’s often very good in the film, but her innate shine is an important reminder that TFIOS isn’t really interested in showing us the true ugliness of death and dying.

Which is O.K. Neither was Love Story , or A Walk to Remember , or any of the myriad other tearjerkers that play out in the same fashion. What the film lacks in grave seriousness it makes up for with its sappy, but rarely treacly, charms. Wanting to get her concerned mother (Laura Dern, wise and wonderful as ever) off her back, Hazel agrees to go to a teens-with-cancer support group at a local church. (The exaggerated Jesus-iness of the support group and its leader is one of Green’s, and the film’s, clumsiest and least nuanced jokes.) It’s there, one fateful day, that she meets Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort), a handsome 18-year-old who was a basketball jock (but a thoughtful one!) before he lost his right leg to cancer. They have an immediate spark, he cocky-cute, she shy but sharp, and soon we’re swooning along with them as they tumble into a doomed romance.

That’s no spoiler. Of course it was always doomed. Someone’s gotta die in this kind of three-hanky thing, and while it’s almost immediately apparent who it’s going to be (even if you haven’t read the book, which, yes, I have), TFIOS rather remarkably doesn’t feel programmatic or tediously inevitable. The movie is, instead, funny and touching and brimming with youthful life, filled with a brightness and a piquancy that’s well channeled through Woodley and guided smartly by Boone. As Augustus and Hazel grow closer, they embark on a quest to find out what happens after the ending of Hazel’s favorite book, An Imperial Affliction , written by an ornery recluse named Peter Van Houten (Willem Dafoe). Their journey takes them to Amsterdam, where they enjoy a wistful, romantic weekend before things get sad again. That’s pretty much it in terms of the movie’s plot, which has been judiciously pared down from the book, while still paying loyal homage to readers’ favorite moments.

The real story here, though, is of course about Hazel and Augustus falling in love and grappling with how limited their time on this lonely Earth may be. And Woodley and Elgort fall in love beautifully, possessed of a lively, natural rapport that is rare among actors their age. Though, they have strangely opposite shortcomings. Woodley excels at the dramatic heavy lifting, but can be a little awkward when doling out Green’s jaunty, stilted upbeat dialogue, while Elgort is all winning grins and easy charm when he’s being flirty, deftly maneuvering Green’s occasionally irksome, Kevin Williamson-y torrents of affected teen speak. But he loses much of his sincerity when the moment turns serious. The two are best, then, in the middle, while Hazel frets, and Gus, noble lad, tries to cheer her up. Elgort could be called too charming by half—he’s so aware of his boyish appeal that it borders on creepily performative by the end—but Woodley’s tempering influence keeps his plucky hearthrobbiness from becoming too slick and robotic.

Plus, who cares, right? Are Augustus and Hazel the cutest couple in the whole wide world? For the time being, they sure are. Does the movie elicit blubbery tears in a way that’s both sloppily big-hearted and almost cruelly precise? Yep, it most certainly does. So much so that I am genuinely nervous about what is going to happen in movie theaters across the nation come Friday. Maybe not since Titanic has a movie threatened to so thoroughly burrow itself into young hearts only to beautifully break them by the end credits. (Or, really, about a half an hour before the end credits.) Look out for a mighty deluge of teen tears flooding multiplexes this weekend, which will be well-earned by this clever, attractive, sad little movie.

Richard Lawson

Chief critic.

The Fault in Our Stars Review

Cry-vergent..

The natural Shailene Woodley and a handful of solid supporting performances can't keep The Fault in Our Stars from succumbing to the toxic effects of sap.

In This Article

Where to Watch

IGN Recommends

Notice: All forms on this website are temporarily down for maintenance. You will not be able to complete a form to request information or a resource. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reactivate the forms as soon as possible.

• DVD & Streaming

The Fault in Our Stars

• Comedy , Drama , Romance

Content Caution

In Theaters

• June 6, 2014
• Shailene Woodley as Hazel Grace Lancaster; Ansel Elgort as Augustus Waters; Nat Wolff as Isaac; Laura Dern as Frannie Lancaster; Sam Trammell as Michael Lancaster; Willem Dafoe as Peter Van Houten; Lotte Verbeek as Lidewij

Home Release Date

• September 16, 2014

Distributor

• 20th Century Fox

Movie Review

They called it a miracle.

It came when Hazel Grace was 13, as her young life was being devoured by cancer. Her parents and doctors watched helplessly as the girl—bald, bedridden, shackled by tubes—slipped slowly from them.

And then she rallied. Recovered a bit. She was put on an experimental drug that, to everyone’s surprise, worked. Hazel survived. And now, four years later, she’s still doing it.

But even miracles in this broken world aren’t always what we’d like them to be. Yes, Hazel is breathing, but weakly, painfully. She’s tethered to an oxygen tank, unable to last for more than a few seconds without it. Her world has grown small, almost claustrophobic. Sometimes she sits and stares at the old, ratty swing set her father built for her in happier times, remembering what it was like to swing and slide and run.

She cannot run now. She can barely climb stairs. She’s still dying, she believes. Just in slow motion.

Her parents think Hazel is depressed and send her to a cancer support group, hoping she’ll make some friends. And while Hazel hates the group, she does meet Augustus there. Gus knows something about cancer himself, having lost most of a leg to the disease not long ago. More importantly, he knows something about life and living. And when he asks to hear Hazel’s story, he doesn’t want to know about her cancer story, he wants to know about her personal one—what she loves and hates, what she hopes and fears.

So she blurts out her love for the book An Imperial Affliction —a story about cancer that ends in mid-sentence when the narrator, Anna, either dies or grows too sick to write. As a literary device, it works: Life often ends inconveniently with so much undone. Those with cancer know that better than most. But the ending’s left Hazel feeling unsettled, wondering, What happens to Anna’s mother? Her friends? What of the Tulip Man? Alas, there are no answers. The author, Peter Van Houten, is a recluse and never answers fan mail.

Gus, of course, refuses to accept defeat. He does a little sleuthing, finds the author and writes to him. Shockingly, the man writes back—insinuating that their answers await in Amsterdam.

It’s practically a miracle, almost as stunning as Hazel’s remission, a surprise too extraordinary to be believed. But the world is no less broken, Hazel no less sick. And sometimes even miracles aren’t what we’d like them to be.

Positive Elements

Death hangs over The Fault in Our Stars like the stars themselves, permeating every character and every interaction. And yet in the midst of mortality we see at least a sliver of something alive. Even in pain, hope can be found, we’re told. Even in disappointment, meaning comes.

Loving someone, truly, through severe sickness, isn’t easy. We see others fail under the pressure. But no matter what circumstances bring, Gus and Hazel care for each other throughout, often giving something of themselves in the process.

They’re both heroic characters in their own ways, facing disease and circumstance with as much grace and courage as they can muster. Hazel’s last few years have been something of a living sacrifice as she tries to cushion the blow of the inevitable pain that’s coming for her parents. Gus wants to live a life of meaning—one filled with adventure and importance, so that when he does go, he’s known and loved by millions.

There’s a little merit in both of those strategies. But when Gus and Hazel get together, they get a better sense of what the beauty of life is really about. Hazel moves beyond responsibility and finds joy in her difficult life. And when she learns that, should she die, her parents won’t die with her, that they’re making plans for a life without her, she treats it as the best of gifts: the idea that she won’t necessarily destroy everyone around her. And Gus, through Hazel, comes to understand that it’s not so critical to be loved by throngs, as long as you’ve loved by and have changed the lives of a few. Or even just one.

Hazel finds solace while visiting the house of Anne Frank, the diary-writing Jewish girl killed in the Nazi Holocaust. “Where there is hope, there is life,” we hear Anne’s words playing in the background. “Think of all the beauty in everything around you. And be happy.”

Unlike most teenage love stories, parents come across pretty well here. While Hazel and her folks have their moments of tension, there’s no question about how much they love one another.

Spiritual Elements

Hazel’s support group takes place in the basement of an Episcopal church and is led by a cancer survivor who’s a fervent—and, in Hazel’s eyes, goofy—Christian. He sings a song that includes the words, “Christ is your friend and He’ll be there to the end.” And he rolls out a carpet depicting the Savior, telling participants standing on it that they’re “literally in the heart of Jesus.” As the story proceeds, then, the idea of literally being in the heart of Jesus, when they’re literally in a church basement, is sometimes mocked.

Christianity is treated more reverentially during a funeral, wherein a priest reads Psalm 23 and people say a prayer. (Still, a much-loathed antagonist crashes the funeral and lets loose a quip about having to “fake pray.”)

Both Hazel and Gus think a lot about what might come after death. Gus fears oblivion in this life while hanging on to a belief in at least some sort of afterlife, saying he wants to crash his own funeral as a ghost. Hazel’s more cynical, telling Gus she doesn’t believe in angels but she may believe in God, and while she’d like to believe in an afterlife she’d need more proof first. Someone suggests that her life has no meaning and her disease is a “failed experiment in mutation.”

Sexual Content

Eighteen-year-old Gus and 17-year-old Hazel are attracted to each other from the beginning. And while Hazel tries to keep him at arm’s length for a while, their platonic relationship goes kablooey in Amsterdam. The two share a tender kiss in Anne Frank’s house. Then they tumble into Gus’ hotel room and have sex.

The scene shows Hazel and Gus taking off each other’s shirts, and she undoes her bra. (We see her from the back.) They caress and kiss as they give in to their passion. Afterwards, both are seen mostly naked, with the sheet covering only the most critical body parts. And it’s worth noting that much is made of Gus’ previously virginal “condition” … and that this union is seen as the perfect end to it. The couple cuddles and kisses elsewhere.

Gus’ friend Isaac makes out with his girlfriend in a parking lot, and we see him kneading her (clothed) breast. Later, Isaac, who has lost both eyes to cancer, comments on the size of another girl’s breasts. “I’m blind, but I’m not that blind,” he says.

We see Hazel’s mom wearing just a bath towel. Hazel cracks a joke about getting herpes.

Violent Content

Grief and anger cause Isaac to egg his ex’s house and car (with lots of help from Gus and Hazel), also to demolish (with permission) some of Gus’ sports trophies. Gus smashes a glass. Gus’ favorite book is based on his favorite video game—one filled, he admits (and we briefly see), with violence and blood.

Cancer is a violent disease, and we see its ravages here. Someone dies from it. When Isaac, Hazel and Gus are all together, Gus quips that they have four eyes, five legs and two-and-a-half working sets of lungs between them.

Crude or Profane Language

One very forceful f-word is used as a sexually derived insult. Also, a half-dozen s-words and a smattering of other bad words, including “a‑‑,” “b‑‑ch,” “b‑‑tard” and “h‑‑‑.” God’s name is used as an expletive about 30 times, twice paired with “d‑‑n.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Gus clamps an unlit cigarette in his mouth as a metaphor—allowing the instrument of death to sit between his teeth, powerless. (We see him with it throughout the story.) He and Hazel are served champagne during a fancy dinner in Amsterdam (where it’s legal for 16-year-olds to drink “adult” beverages that contain less than 15% alcohol). Both teens are very enthusiastic about its taste, and Gus tells the waiter they’ll need a bit more of it. They pop open another bottle during a sad picnic back in the States.

It’s clear that a man Gus and Hazel meet is an alcoholic. He asks his assistant to bring him another drink before he’s even had breakfast, and he offers the kids Scotch. We see him regularly taking swigs from a flask.

Hazel jokes about getting a fake ID and “taking” pot.

Other Negative Elements

We’re asked to watch as someone is overcome with nausea.

“Apparently, the world is not a wish-granting factory,” Gus says sadly.

It’s a truth we all know. Even we Christians, whom the movie portrays as fairly naive, see that all too well. We wish it was. We want our happily ever after endings. But we know that happiness on earth is fickle and fleeting.

In The Fault in Our Stars (based on John Green’s best-selling young adult novel) we find, indeed, that the stars haven’t been especially kind to these two lovers. They don’t have the time we’d wish for them—time to get jobs and have kids, to grow up and grow old. They’ve been given a finite number of days together—and even those days are filled with the looming problems and anxiety that cancer inevitably brings. And whenever it seems like something wonderful might finally happen, it goes awry. Each star they cling to, including each other, has a fault inside—a scratch, a split.

But even given such faulty stars, the two find joy and fulfillment. They have each other. They’re loved. They live. Yes, maybe their days are built on borrowed time, but it’s better than no time, and Hazel confesses that she’s “grateful for our little infinity.”

“You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world,” Hazel says. “but you do get to choose who hurts you.” That’s a strangely powerful statement, I think.

Sadly, one fault Hazel and Gus share is that they don’t always make the wisest of choices. They sleep together. And they prefer to see themselves as pawns of the stars, not beloved by those stars’ Creator.

This isn’t an anti-Christian film, exactly—just spiritually uncertain. Nor is it saturated in sex or depravity. This isn’t a bad movie, really. In many ways, it’s quite good.

But here’s the thing: Because it is quite good—a persuasive, emotional story with strong, positive messages about sacrifice, hard truths and true love—the bad stuff can come off as more persuasive than usual. It’s harder to see a loving God yourself when the characters you grow to care about can’t, or won’t. It’s harder to object to premarital sex while weepily watching Hazel and Gus—teens who might never get the chance to ever have sex again—get so much pleasure and fulfillment from it.

The Fault in Our Stars is, I suppose, a little like its title. For all its sparkly power, it has scratches and splits. We know immediately when a movie like  Noah drifts away from its moorings. But it’s hard to see a film with crystal-clear eyes when you’re always dabbing them with a Kleenex.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

Latest Reviews

Borderlands

One Fast Move

Time Bandits

Lawrence of Arabia

Weekly reviews straight to your inbox.

The Fault In Our Stars Review

19 Jun 2014

126 minutes

Fault In Our Stars, The

A teen cancer drama like a rite of passage for a former child actress these days: Dakota Fanning did it in Now Is Good; now Shailene Woodley stars as a cancer patient with a similar desire to live life to the full while she can. But this isn’t all about a dying girl popping her cherry: it’s actually love interest Gus (Ansel Elgort) who’s the virgin here. That’s just one of the refreshing spots of table-turning in what could have been a formulaic Hollywood tear-jerker. It’s also funny: Gus and Hazel indulge in gallows humour rather than self-pity, though their resilience doesn’t stretch to unlikely levels.

While 16 year-old Hazel narrates, this also takes a look at the effect her condition has on her family. Laura Dern puts in a sensitive performance as the kindly, smiling mother fighting back the tears, torn between indulging her daughter and protecting her. Like the (bestselling) source novel by John Green, The Fault In Our Stars explores characters as much by what they don’t say as what they do. Hazel’s parents’ strained faces speak volumes; as do Gus’ cavalier jokes that help him avoid the truth.

Performances are likable and the casting’s on the money: Elgort (Woodley’s brother in Divergent) has a flirtatious sparkle while not an obvious hunk, while Woodley maintains the fresh-faced girl-next-door look that should win over the young target market. It’s also quite brave for a mass-market film to feature a heroine wearing a breathing tube throughout.

The Fault In Our Stars isn’t for cynics and it has its credibility-stretching moments, from the actions of cantankerous author Peter Van Houten (Willem Dafoe) to various scrubbed-up hospital scenes. It’s chiefly a fantasy: a romanticised tale of a short life that brushes the nasty stuff under the carpet. But it does what it does well — and that includes bringing a tear to the eye.

Related Articles

Movies | 30 01 2019

Movies | 11 10 2017

Movies | 02 03 2017

Movies | 04 07 2016

Movies | 04 05 2016

Movies | 01 05 2016

Movies | 01 04 2016

Movies | 28 03 2016

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Newsletters
• Sweepstakes

'The Fault in Our Stars': The reviews are in...

Perhaps the people who run studios thought Divergent was the big YA novel to launch Shailene Woodley into the stratosphere, but her performance in the cancer weepie The Fault in Our Stars might be the role that makes her a giant star.

Based on John Green’s 2012 best-seller, director Josh Boone’s movie tells the story of a cynical 16-year-old cancer patient (Woodley), saddled with an oxygen tank and breathing tube, and the more-dynamic, free-spirited remission patient (Ansel Elgort) who falls in love with her. “A generation of teens like [Woodley’s character] have been weaned on YA novels, leading to more discerning palates,” EW’s Chris Nashawaty writes in his review. “They can sniff out condescension from a thousand yards. That’s why they’re lucky to have an actress as effortlessly charismatic and natural as 22-year-old Woodley ( The Descendants ) as their stand-in.”

If you’ve read the book, you know the ending, and if you loved the book, you’re already whimpering. (Beware, fragile souls, the trailer awaits below.) If you’re perhaps older or didn’t read the book, think Love Story and everything that entails — spoilers, schmoilers. As the characters themselves learn, it’s not the ending that counts.

Read more from Nashawaty’s review, as well as a round-up of other notable critics, below.

Chris Nashawaty (Entertainment Weekly)

“[Gus] woos Hazel Grace as if his life depended on it; you get the impression that in some ways maybe it does. … In other words, he’s too good to be true. That’s the main flaw with Josh Boone’s otherwise poignant film. In Gus’ manic wish-fulfillment adorableness, he’s as eager to please as a litter of cocker-spaniel puppies. It’s as grating as it is hard to buy.”

Mick LaSalle ( San Francisco Chronicle )

“It’s exploitative in the most obvious ways, and yet sincere. It’s a product of sophisticated market calculation, and yet artless in its immediacy. … Shrewdly prefabricated and yet lovingly assembled, it is, in short, the most beautifully made cynical thing I’ve ever seen.”

Ann Hornaday ( Washington Post )

“Adapted from John Green’s bestselling novel by screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber ( (500) Days of Summer and The Spectacular Now ), The Fault in Our Stars brims with the kind of adolescent goofiness, searching and spiky anger that marked the John Hughes and Cameron Crowe films of another era.

David Edelstein ( New York — Vulture)

“There were times I felt a tingling in my tear ducts and almost let loose. But something rubbed me wrong about the opening voice-over, in which ­Hazel warns that the story she’s about to tell won’t be like one of those movies where everything gets solved with “a Peter Gabriel song.” (Dear Hazel: Eat me. Sincerely, Lloyd Dobler.)”

Ty Burr ( Boston Globe )

“Watching the mid-movie restaurant scene where Gus proclaims his love for Hazel with poetic awkwardness, the woman to the left of me was bawling her eyes out. The couple to my right strained to stifle laughter. You already know which group you belong to. ”

A.O. Scott ( New York Times )

“Part of the ingenuity of The Fault in Our Stars is the way it short-circuits any potential criticism through a combination of winsome modesty and brazen manipulation. These kids are so nice, so wise, so good-humored, and they also may be dying. What kind of a monster could look at them and find fault?”

Kimberley Jones ( Austin Chronicle )

“The film is bundled in kindness, and that’s nothing to shrug at. Green’s book made a point of underscoring what a privilege it is to love someone — notably, not to be loved, but to do the loving — and the film adaptation movingly puts those words to picture.”

Richard Roeper ( Chicago Sun-Times ) ▲

“After having the privilege of witnessing Shailene Woodley’s transcendent, pure and authentic performance in The Fault in Our Stars , I believe there are now only four slots available in the category of Best Performance by An Actress in a Lead role. She’s that memorable.”

Steven Rea ( Philadelphia Inquirer )

“Elgort (the son of photographer Arthur Elgort) is like a baby-faced Brando — disarming, and armed with a killer grin. When the pair, dressed for a fancy repast of risotto and Dom Pérignon, gaze across the table at each other, their characters’ love, defiant and resolute, feels real.”

Andrew Barker ( Variety )

“Hazel is a great character, tart without being cynical, vulnerable without being needy, and capable of tossing out bons mots like “I’m the Keith Richards of cancer kids” without seeming like a writerly construct. Augustus is decidedly less developed, … a male version of the types … usually played by Kate Hudson and Kirsten Dunst.”

Richard Corliss (TIME)

“Though you know that Fault , like Love Story , is bound to have a body count, the symbiosis of these stars is so strong, you’ll wish there could be a sequel.”

The Fault in Our Stars

Overall Metacritic rating (1-100): 69

Rotten Tomatoes: 83 percent

Rated: PG-13

Length: 125 minutes

Director: Josh Boone

Starring Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Nat Woolff, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe

Distributor: Fox

Related Articles

🙌 Awesome, you're subscribed!

Thanks for subscribing! Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon!

Get us in your inbox

Sign up to our newsletter for the latest and greatest from your city and beyond

By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions.

Awesome, you're subscribed!

The best things in life are free.

Sign up for our email to enjoy your city without spending a thing (as well as some options when you’re feeling flush).

Déjà vu! We already have this email. Try another?

Love the mag?

Our newsletter hand-delivers the best bits to your inbox. Sign up to unlock our digital magazines and also receive the latest news, events, offers and partner promotions.

• Things to Do
• Food & Drink
• Arts & Culture
• Time Out Market
• Coca-Cola Foodmarks
• Los Angeles

• Recommended

The Fault in Our Stars

Time out says.

This adaptation of John Green’s bestselling 2012 young adult novel about a teenage girl in love and living with cancer is far from the shameless emotional pummelling it might have been. It finds its own understated way to earn tears, and that’s a tricky thing to pull off given the material.

The film’s linchpin is actress Shailene Woodley (already the saviour of several iffy films, including ‘Divergent’). Her effortless regular-girl charm turns oxygen-tank-carrying Hazel into a fully fleshed-out teenager. Even as Hazel meets and falls for upbeat charmer Gus (Ansel Elgort, Woodley’s ‘Divergent’ co-star) in a kids cancer support group, there’s believable banter between them that redeems a long foreseen outcome, known to anyone who’s ever waded into the salty pool of movies like ‘Love Story’.

The lion’s share of the credit should go to 35-year-old director Josh Boone (‘Stuck in Love’). He puts his texting, vulnerable lovers front and centre, and even manages to coach Laura Dern, playing Hazel’s mother, away from her familiar smeary cry-face. But the original story, faithfully honoured here, is bolder than its set-up implies: their shared love of a novel about a child with cancer leads the ailing couple from Indianapolis in the US to Amsterdam to meet the book’s reclusive author (Willem Dafoe). It’s a welcome interlude where the reality of suffering is expanded to include bitterness, cynicism and even a political dimension when the lovers visit Anne Frank’s house. Though supported by Woodley’s subtle narration, ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ relentlessly wears its heart on its sleeve. That’s part of the book’s inspiring touch. Even if some of the supporting cast come off as merely functional, the core of the tragedy comes to life in a moving and devastating way.

Release Details

• Release date: Thursday 19 June 2014
• Duration: 125 mins

Cast and crew

• Director: Josh Boone
• Screenwriter: Scott Neustadter
• Shailene Woodley
• Ansel Elgort
• Willem Dafoe

Been there, done that? Think again, my friend.

Discover Time Out original video

• Press office
• Investor relations
• Work for Time Out
• Editorial guidelines
• Privacy notice
• Do not sell my information
• Cookie policy
• Accessibility statement
• Terms of use
• Modern slavery statement
• Manage cookies
• Advertising

Time Out Worldwide

• All Time Out Locations
• North America
• South America
• South Pacific

Screen Rant

'the fault in our stars' review.

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

John Wick 5 Looks Even More Complicated To Pull Off Now

Upcoming horror movie sequel 13 years in the making is exactly what this $657 million franchise needs, the mandalorian & grogu d23 footage reveals a star wars rebels hero's return, fans of the book as well as uninitiated moviegoers looking for a thought-provoking character piece will find plenty to enjoy and ponder in boone's latest film..

The Fault in Our Stars  follows sixteen year-old Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) who has fought thyroid cancer since she was thirteen. After the disease spreads to her lungs, Hazel entered an experimental study to help battle the cancer but, in spite of minor improvements to her overall comfort, she remains hooked to an oxygen tank, is easily tired, and, as a result, lives a hermitic life. Hazel fills her days with books, reality TV, and studying - until her mother (Laura Dern) pressures Hazel to join a support group for young cancer patients. Reluctant to cause her parents additional stress, Hazel agrees to attend the meetings.

The sessions are a chore - until she meets osteosarcoma survivor Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort). Augustus is living cancer free, after doctors amputated his right leg, but attends the group in support of his best friend, Isaac (Nat Wolff), who is days away from an operation that will leave him blind. Following the meeting, Hazel and Augustus strike up a fast and flirty friendship but as Augustus encourages Hazel to break out of her shell, challenging her to live  before it is too late, she is reminded of her biggest fear: she's a grenade, terminally ill, and when her day comes, she wants to protect everyone from the blast - even if it means holding someone she is growing to love at arm's length.

The Fault in Our Stars film was adapted by writing partners Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber ( (500) Days of Summer ) from author John Green's 2012 young adult novel of the same name - with Josh Boone ( Stuck in Love ) sitting in the director's chair. Understandably, discerning moviegoers have become doubtful of young adult novel adaptations - following a string of hit or miss Hollywood cash grabs in the genre. That said, even though certain aspects of The Fault in Our Stars rely on teenage romance tropes, clever directing choices from Boone, challenging performances, and an uncompromising premise, elevate the final film far above its melodramatic contemporaries.

While the plot centers on a tale of star-crossed lovers, The Fault in Our Stars is in fact a surprisingly authentic and moving story of life in the shadow of death. Some viewers might be put-off by a story of teenage love but the narrative strives for much larger insight than simply following the ups and downs of a budding romance. From the opening moments, it's clear  The Fault in Our Stars seeks to be a spotlight for the truth (both the victories and the horrors) of those who have been touched, either directly or indirectly, by cancer (among other illnesses). While Hazel laments that her life isn't normal, she provides the foundation for a more poignant tale of what it means to love and be loved.

Following critical and commercial success in The Descendants and Divergent , respectively, Shailene Woodley offers her sharpest performance to date. Beyond the challenge of depicting terminal illness with responsibility and authenticity, Woodley proves she can make teenage drama credible - in a way that should resonate with all viewers, regardless of age. It's a brave performance, not because she's once again playing a beloved book character; because the message of the movie is important - especially for women and men on the verge of adulthood. For those touched by tragedy, the struggles of Hazel (as well as her friends) will hit close to home but her actions and outlook offer a unique perspective on illness and death - one that might even provide comfort to audience members that have struggled (or will struggle) with loss.

Of course, that perspective grows out of Hazel's encounters with Augustus and, after mostly understated roles in Carrie  and  Divergent , Ansel Elgort is a scene stealer in The Fault in Our Stars . The character offers a fun and exuberant juxtaposition to Hazel, often embodying the larger themes and messages of the film, without resorting to caricature or violating the movie's hard-hitting representation of life as a sick teenager. In the young adult genre, where young men are often presented as standoffish, muscly hunks, it's refreshing to see a male hero that expresses his love through thoughtful deeds - not fist fights and eye-rolling dialogue.

A strong cast of supporting players join Woodley and Elgort, including film veterans Laura Dern and Sam Trammell as Hazel's parents, Mike Birbiglia playing the leader of Hazel's support group, as well as Willem Dafoe in the role of reclusive author, Peter van Houten. While everyone in the cast turns in a quality performance, Nat Wolff ( Admission ) is particularly charming as Augustus and Hazel's friend, Isaac, a character that weaves in and out of the main storyline but adds an extra layer of insight, and comedic relief, to  The Fault in Our Stars .

Skeptics might scoff at its young adult-centric romance but  The Fault in Our Stars  has the potential to touch moviegoers both young and old - especially those that have battled sickness or cared for a dying loved one. Fans of the book as well as uninitiated moviegoers looking for a thought-provoking character piece will find plenty to enjoy and ponder in Boone's latest film. The Fault in Our Stars  succeeds a heartfelt drama, where a pair of teenage protagonists set the stage for an ageless (and uplifting) message about human life - highlighting both its frailty and beauty.

[poll id="816"]

_____________________________________________________________

The Fault in Our Stars  runs 125 minutes and is Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, some sexuality and brief strong language. Now playing in theaters.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comment section below.

Follow me on Twitter @ benkendrick  for future reviews, as well as movie, TV, and gaming news.

The Fault in Our Stars (2014)

Based on the bestselling novel by John Green, The Fault in Our Stars follows Hazel Grace Lancaster, a teenage girl living with cancer who meets fellow cancer patient Augustus Waters at a support group and begins and romance with him. Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort star as Hazel and Gus. 

• Movie Reviews
• 4 star movies

The Fault in Our Stars

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

A crappy cancer movie from a crappy cancer book. Be honest – that’s what you’re thinking. Prejudging is easy when it comes to The Fault in Our Stars , the movie version of John Green’s 2012 young-adult bestseller about a present-day Romeo and Juliet, both starcrossed by the Big C.

It turns out The Fault in Our Stars isn’t total crap on the page or on the screen. Green made the wise choice to be funny in telling his sad story. And the film, directed by Josh Boone from a wittily nuanced script by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, of (500) Days of Summer , follows suit.

It’s a fresh, lively love story, brimming with humor and heartbreak, and lifted to the heights by Shailene Woodley, 22, a sublime actress with a résumé, from The Descendants to Divergent , that pretty much proves she’s incapable of making a false move on camera.

Woodley plays Hazel Grace Lancaster, a 16-year-old whose thyroid cancer forces her to wear tubes in her nose and drag around an oxygen tank. As a look, it sucks. And Hazel knows it. Plus, she has a mouth on her.

What makes Hazel puke more than chemo is her cancer support group. That is, until she meets Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort, wonderful), a full-on charmer who is in remission since his osteosarcoma necessitated that one of his legs be removed from the kneedown. Gus is in group to support his buddy Isaac, played by Nat Wolff, so fine in Palo Alto and equally outstanding here. Isaac has lost one eye to cancer, with the other likely to go.

What Is Going on With the 'It Ends With Us' Cast?

Australian olympic breaker 'raygun' loses dance battles, wins our hearts, offering no proof, trump tells rallygoers dems conspired with media to call him 'weird', will the government stop political deepfakes like elon musk’s kamala harris ad.

Depressing? You’d think. But the actors, under Boone’s astute direction, never hit the pedal on self-pity. Hazel tells Gus her literary obsession is An Imperial Affliction , by Peter Van Houten (Willem Dafoe, superb), a recluse who ended his novel in midsentence and high-tailed it to Amsterdam. Hazel is consumed with finding Van Houten. So off she goes to Amsterdam, with her clumsy breathing apparatus, her mother (Laura Dern) and loyal Gus. Hard truths are learned. On a visit to Anne Frank’s attic, Hazel and Gus share a kiss.

Hold on. It only sounds awful. Woodley and Elgort, siblings in Divergent , are way cool as lovers, putting a hip, hotblooded spin on what could be maudlin mush. They find the tale’s comic spirit without losing its tragic fervor. Say what you will about the faults in Fault . It gets to you.

'Avatar 3' Titled 'Fire and Ash,' James Cameron Reveals

• By Daniel Kreps

'Skeleton Crew': 'Star Wars' Goes 'Goonies' in Trailer for New Series

• lost in space

What Is Going on With the 'It Ends With Us' Cast?

• Never-Ending Story
• By Kalia Richardson

'Cuckoo' Is Hunter Schaefer's New Horror Movie. 'Batshit' Would Be a Better Title

• MOVIE REVIEW
• By David Fear

How Hunter Schafer Became 'A Badass Thriller Bad Bitch'

• Girl on Film
• By CT Jones

Most Popular

Sally field reveals robin williams changed 'mrs. doubtfire' filming order so she could leave set after her father died: 'he was very sensitive and intuitive', taylor swift instagram post sparks kamala harris endorsement speculation, suge knight believes fbi gave ben affleck compromising jennifer lopez footage from diddy raids, florida lawyer blows up communist statues, egypt's new mega-mummy museum, london's national gallery revamp, and more: morning links for august 6, 2024, you might also like, ‘the seed of the sacred fig’ director mohammad rasoulof on current state of iran: ‘the islamic republic is vulnerable and unstable’, banana republic opens lifestyle concept store at westfield century city mall, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors, winona ryder says filming ‘beetlejuice, beetlejuice’ was a ‘religious experience’, france aims for record medal haul thanks to de gaulle’s disgust.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Fault in Our Stars, The (United States, 2014)

Calling The Fault in Our Stars a "teenage cancer romance" might be understating the film's laudable qualities but it's also a reasonably accurate three-word summary of the plot. Adapted from John Green's best-selling YA novel of the same name, The Fault in Our Stars merits notice not because of its formulaic storyline but because of the heartfelt manner in which it is presented. The acting is top-notch, the characters are three-dimensional, and the dialogue is sharp and witty. Josh Boone's direction is unremarkable but he understands how to get out of the way and let the actors do their thing. In the era of the auteur director, it's sometimes refreshing to find a filmmaker who recognizes the value of self-effacement.

To call a movie in which both leads have cancer and are dancing with the Grim Reaper a "feel good experience" isn't as unlikely as it might seem at first. Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) and Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort) are in many ways more alive than most due to their constant awareness of the fragility of their existences. The average teenager isn't aware of his or her mortality; Hazel and Ausgustus have no choice but to be intimately acquainted with theirs. They live in the present because they may have no future. The movie captures this sense of immediacy in an effortless, unforced manner. Only toward the end, when events reach their terminus, does Boone overdo the manipulation. The only thing missing at this point is a blinking neon sign demanding: "Cry, dammit!" It's obvious The Fault in Our Stars doesn't want a dry eye in the theater.

The movie is told from Hazel's perspective and, although her voiceover narrative isn't a guarantee that she'll survive the proceedings, it offers a sense of reassurance. We’re introduced to her around the time she first encounters Augustus at a cancer support group meeting. Both of their diseases are in remission but she carries around an oxygen cylinder because her lungs are prone to filling with fluid and she can't breathe without it. Augustus appears completely healthy, having apparently beaten his affliction after losing a leg to it. The two bond, flirt, send each other witty text messages, and move forward with a quasi-romance until Hazel decides they should just be friends. She argues that since she's likely to die sooner than later, it would only hurt Augustus to become embroiled in a love affair with her. He demurs and continues to pursue her.

The screenplay contains more humor than can be found in the average cancer-related film, although it falls short of the pinnacle achieved by 50/50 , which largely avoided the kind of overt manipulation that emerges late in The Fault in Our Stars . The characters here are beautifully realized. As cliché-riddled as the plot may be, Hazel and Augustus stand out as genuine, credible individuals, and the honesty with which they are brought to the screen trumps many other concerns and obfuscates nitpicky flaws. Shailene Woodley, who has blossomed in motion pictures during the past year with star turns in The Spectacular Now and Divergent , is in top form here (even if she seems a little too old to play a teenager). Her lover is brought to life by Ansel Elgort (who portrayed her brother in Divergent ). Laura Dern is Hazel's mother; her role is meatier than is common for parents in teen-centered motion pictures. Willem Dafoe is Hazel's favorite author, Peter Van Houten, whose introduction argues that sometimes heroes and icons are best kept at a distance.

The movie adaptation of Green's novel is faithful to the source, in large part due to the author's ongoing involvement in the production. Fans of The Fault in Our Stars are unlikely to find fault with how the material has been transitioned from page to screen. The core demographic will likely be thrilled but even those who haven't read a page of the book and come to this project with a natural inclination toward cynicism will find things to appreciate about this tragic-yet-uplifting love story. The tale itself may be unremarkable but the characters and emotions are real, and sometimes that's all it takes for a movie to win over the unbelievers.

Comments Add Comment

• Pride & Prejudice (1996)
• English Patient, The (1996)
• Horse Whisperer, The (1998)
• Nights in Rodanthe (2008)
• Sweet November (2001)
• Longest Ride, The (2015)
• Descendants, The (2011)
• Spectacular Now, The (2013)
• Divergent (2014)
• Insurgent (2015)
• Allegiant (2016)
• Snowden (2016)
• Baby Driver (2017)
• West Side Story (2021)
• Carrie (2013) (2013)
• Palo Alto (2014)
• (There are no more better movies of Nat Wolff)
• Home Again (2017)
• Paper Towns (2015)
• Intern, The (2015)

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

It Ends with Us

Adapted from the Colleen Hoover novel, Lily overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life. A chance meeting with a neurosurgeon sparks a connection but Lily begins to see sides of ... Read all Adapted from the Colleen Hoover novel, Lily overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life. A chance meeting with a neurosurgeon sparks a connection but Lily begins to see sides of him that remind her of her parents' relationship. Adapted from the Colleen Hoover novel, Lily overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life. A chance meeting with a neurosurgeon sparks a connection but Lily begins to see sides of him that remind her of her parents' relationship.

• Justin Baldoni
• Christy Hall
• Colleen Hoover
• Blake Lively
• Jenny Slate
• 55 User reviews
• 51 Critic reviews
• 54 Metascore

Top cast 24

• Ryle Kincaid

• Atlas Corrigan

• Andrew Bloom

• Jenny Bloom

• Young Atlas Corrigan

• Young Lily Bloom

• Doctor Johnson

• Doctor Julie

• Doctor Dunbar

• (as Megan Elyse Robinson)

• Female Waiter
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

The Big List of Summer Movies

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia The casting of Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni as Lily and Ryle caused backlash from fans because in the book Lily is 23 and Ryle is 30, while Lively is 35 and Baldoni is 39. Author of the book Colleen Hoover explained in an interview that she wanted to age the characters up in the movie in an effort to correct a mistake she made in the book. She said, "Back when I wrote It Ends With Us, the new adult [genre] was very popular. You were writing college-age characters. That's what I was contracted to do. I made Lily very young. I didn't know that neurosurgeons went to school for 50 years. There's not a 20-something neurosurgeon. As I started making this movie, I'm like, 'We need to age them out, because I messed up.' So, that's my fault."
• Connections Featured in The Project: Episode dated 6 August 2024 (2024)
• Soundtracks Start Me Up Written by August Wisbon Performed by DJ Roc Courtesy of Crucial Music Corporation

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 10 minutes

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed.

'Borderlands' Review: This Video Game Adaptation Is a Fun But Bumpy Claptrap

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

The Big Picture

• Some standout performances by Ariana Greenblatt, Jack Black, and Jamie Lee Curtis elevate Borderlands , but the ensemble is far too bloated.
• Strong fight choreography and vivid settings provide solid action and adventure scenes.
• Rushed plotlines and lack of character development weaken the film's potential.

Video game adaptations have had a rocky history , with everything from Assassin's Creed to Rampage getting less-than-stellar reviews. The past few years, however, have seen that this doesn’t have to be the case, as The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Five Nights at Freddy’s have proven to be box office smashes, and shows like The Last of Us and Fallout have become Emmys darlings. Can Borderlands follow that trend, or is it going to be game over as soon as it hits theaters?

Borderlands

What is 'borderlands' about.

Borderlands is based on the role-playing first-person shooter game that first came out in 2009 and spawned several sequels, prequels, and spinoffs. The film hones in on one character of the possible four to play: Lilith ( Cate Blanchett ), a rough-around-the-edges bounty hunter. Lilith is a lone wolf and likes it that way. Still, when she gets roped into finding the powerful Atlas’ ( Edgar Ramírez ) feral daughter, Tiny Tina ( Ariana Greenblatt ), she’s forced to team up with an unexpected ragtag team that includes an elite mercenary named Roland ( Kevin Hart ), a masked psycho named Krieg ( Florian Munteanu ), an obnoxious robot named Claptrap ( Jack Black ), and a brilliant, yet socially awkward scientist from her past named Tannis ( Jamie Lee Curtis ).

This dysfunctional group must travel across Lilith’s home planet of Pandora (a place she absolutely despises), collecting keys to open up a mysterious vault (a mission she despises even more) — all while trying not to be killed by power-hungry bandits and menacing alien creatures. Throughout the increasingly whacky and dangerous treasure-hunt -slash-wild-goose-chase, the group discovers surprising secrets about their pasts, destinies, and each othe r.

'Borderlands' Cluttered Cast Detracts From Its Strongest Element

The cast of Borderlands is an embarrassment of riches — there’s no question about that. It includes some of the most bankable talent in Hollywood, not to mention several Oscar winners . Unfortunately, this mostly works to the film’s detriment rather than contributes to its success, as it’s simply too cramped for any one character to get the time and development they need to be wholly compelling. Gina Gershon and Janina Gavankar , for example, are clearly having a lot of fun in their roles as tough bar owner Moxxi and Commander Knoxx, but Moxxi is given very little to do, and Commander Knoxx’s plotline is rushed and confusing, culminating in a bizarre twist that feels like it was haphazardly thrown in last minute.

Despite its crowded ensemble, however, the heart of the film emerges early in the form of the relationship between Lilith and Tina . Girl dads have been discussed a lot in recent years, with dynamics like Jim Hopper ( David Harbour ) and Eleven ( Millie Bobby Brown ) in Stranger Things and Joel ( Pedro Pascal ) and Ellie ( Bella Ramsey ) from The Last of Us capturing hearts everywhere, and it’s refreshing to see a twist on this trope with a woman at the helm. The film allows Lilith to be rather cold and not particularly maternal, and seeing the unique bond she forms with the fiercely independent and rageful Tina is far and away the most intriguing thing going on. It’s just a pity the film forgoes focusing more on it to instead include more half-baked plots for the peripheral characters.

And that’s not the only relationship that suffers. Tina and Roland’s dynamic is another central part of the story, but we rarely see them interact apart from an opening scene, and Roland, in particular, feels woefully underdeveloped . Tannis and Lilith have a juicy, complicated history, but instead of being delved into, it’s grossly oversimplified and glossed over. The two’s traumatic past with one another could be a chance for delicious character work — the kind Curtis and Blanchett have proven time and time again they shine with — but instead, it’s wasted, utilized only to drive the similarly simplified plot along.

The Performances in 'Borderlands' Are a Mixed Bag

It makes sense, then, that Blanchett struggles a bit with her character at the beginning of the film, her sarcastic delivery oddly stilted. The movie seemingly can’t decide whether it’s going fully comedic or embracing gritty darkness, and her deadpan delivery hovers between the two, not knowing which way to fully commit. When she is allowed to dig deeper and play more dramatic emotional moments, she delivers the way we know she can, but it begs the question of whether it was an example of incorrect casting or simply a weak script .

Funnily enough, it’s the young Greenblatt who steals the show and gives the most interesting performance. She has a grasp on Tina from the beginning, gleefully skipping around and blowing things up with her explosives-ridden bunny stuffed animals. She nails the comedy, infusing Tina with a cocky confidence that’s a figurative and literal blast, but she’s also given the chance to show off her dramatic chops, which she excels at in equal measure.

Black and Curtis are similarly solid choices for their roles , each understanding the assignment. Claptrap is persistently annoying, but he’s supposed to be, and Black knows how to sell it so he’s comedic relief for the audience while being a nuisance to the characters around him. It’s especially impressive considering some of the cringe-worthy lines he has to say — ones that would emit groans in less capable hands. Curtis goes all-in on her anxious genius character, bringing an endearing quality to the mad scientist. Not to mention it’s pretty damn cool to see a canon autistic female character over 60 solving problems and kicking ass.

'Borderlands' Is a Fun But Bumpy Ride

Borderlands is an action-adventure movie at its core, and it undoubtedly delivers on that front. The action — especially the hand-to-hand combat and more acrobatic fight choreography — is a blast , particularly against the acid-wash steampunk aesthetic . A few of the settings, including Tina’s hideout place and Moxxi’s bar, are especially immersive and fun, and utilized well. It’s when the film begins relying on more CGI that things start to fall apart a bit. I admittedly know very little about special effects in that regard, but even I felt the climactic battle looked rather cheap and dated — not a great sign.

The film suffers when it comes to pacing, too. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to have a movie sit well under two hours — something the majority of films these days don’t seem to do — but the speed at which plotlines get resolved feels rushed instead of efficient, the breakneck pace sacrificing clarity and much-needed tension and stakes . There are a few effective twists and surprises, but a great number of plotlines can be seen coming from a mile away, whether you’re familiar with the game or not. This isn’t an inherently bad thing, but this film’s very theme is that it’s about the journey and not the destination, and Borderlands doesn’t give you nearly enough time to settle in and enjoy the ride.

Borderlands is ultimately a fun if flawed and rather unmemorable summer blockbuster . It’s just disappointing that the source material has so much more to offer in terms of its layered characters and complicated themes of trauma and survival that the film seems either uninterested in or incapable of tapping into.

'Borderlands' is a fun ride, but a bloated cast and breakneck pacing don’t allow it to reach its full potential.

• Ariana Greenblatt, Jack Black, and Jamie Lee Curtis all stand out in their roles.
• The vivid setting and strong fight choreography make for solid action and adventure scenes.
• Relationships aren't given ample time and space to develop, wasting intriguing characters and talent.
• The film rushes through plot points, weakening the stakes and tension.
• The writing and visual effects can prove wobbly at times.

Borderlands comes to theaters in the U.S. starting August 9. Click below for showtimes near you.

Get Tickets

• Movie Reviews
• video game movies
• Cate Blanchett