John Green’s extremely successful YA book has translated to a compelling and heartbreaking romance film. It’s quite close to the book and uses some narration from it. If the book didn’t leave you in tears, the film is certain to.
The story follows Hazel Grace Lancaster, a teen with terminal cancer who meets the charming Augustus Waters at a support group. Her depression lifts as they fall in love. Together they’re on a mission to find some answers to a book written by the elusive author Peter Van Houten. The actors Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort are brilliant and credible as Hazel and Augustus. This being the kind of film where the story rests on the characterisation, in this respect it’s very successful. Laura Dern and Sam Trammell as Hazel’s parents are wonderful too, as is Nat Wolff, who plays Isaac (Augustus’ best friend).
I think the film is very well-crafted and can’t think of anything to criticise. Anything to dislike about it would be down to flaws in the original book. While the film would be categorised as an American teen romance, it’s down to earth and bittersweet. Not as many gritty details as the book but I would say it’s a near perfect adaptation.
Low-resolution poster sourced from Wikipedia.
I love both the film and the book, if I had to choose then I would say the book just has the edge but both are great 😊
I’m glad you’re a fan 🙂 The film was so well done. I will re-read and re-watch at some point.
I am always sceptical of watching movies based on books I have enjoyed. Quite often, the characters seem different to the picture I have formed in my head. This sounds like a good adaptation, so perhaps I will give it a try.
I know what you mean. In this case, the story is very similar and the characters are as you would expect. However, having read the book and seen the film only once, it could be I have misremembered something about them. If you do check it out, I hope you like it.
It’s nice to hear about a book-to-movie adaptation that was done really well, to the point where there are actual elements of the book taken word for word! Great review. 🙂
Thanks for reading 🙂 Yes this one was impressively done. I wish more movies would stick to the books! It might depend on whether the author is involved in production or not.
Nah…not for me. Not a John Green fan 🙂 Nor Marian Keyes. Have you read her books? Glad you enjoyed the movie 🙂
This is most likely the best John Green, I’m not likely to read any more of his after not being keen on Paper Towns. I haven’t read any Marian Keyes, maybe I should try one of hers just to see.
I’ve still not seen this one! I keep meaning to watch it but it seems a little too schmaltzy (?!) and in your face that it puts me off 🤣
Great write up as usual 😉
You know I don’t like schmaltzy stuff so trust me, this one is not like that 🙂 I would really recommend you try if the film comes up on your radar. Thanks 😀
Glad you enjoyed both, I did too. I cried reading and watching.
It’s so sad yet wonderful 🙁 Thanks for reading my post.