

He also has a perfect partner in the immensely talented Woodley. His comic timing is excellent, his smile is so easy, and there's just enough of an "Aw, shucks" attitude to temper the character's precociousness.

We have to fall for Gus like Hazel does and Elgort makes it easy. In the movie, Hazel's narration is limited, and so we're given no choice but to completely give into Gus' personality. The book is from her point of view, so her inner resistance counterbalances his outer whimsy. In John Green's novel, Gus' charm is met by Hazel's wariness. Gus also always knows the right thing to say, he's rarely vulnerable, and his whole purpose is to get Hazel to come out of her shell and realize the value of life no matter how short it may be.īut dammit, Elgort is too damn charming. It's either one step shy or one step beyond telling someone to marvel at your forced affectation. Gus is, in some senses, a "Manic Pixie Dream Boy", a dreamboat who can confidently tell a girl he just met that he's using a metaphor when he holds an unlit cigarette between his lips because it doesn't have the power to kill him unless he lights it. It's a sign that it's okay to laugh in a movie where young people are slowly dying, and that there is appropriate comedy other than gallows humor.īut The Fault in Our Stars never wants to be cynical, and that's where Gus comes in. But the real opening salvo comes when we meet the support group's leader, Patrick ( Mike Birbiglia), a well-meaning buffoon who tries to put a happy, sing-song tune on having cancer. As their romance grows, Hazel must grapple with her feelings for Augustus and her fears about how her death might affect the loved ones she leaves behind.īoone quickly establishes his film as a rejection of sappy cancer stories by having Hazel's opening narration call out these kinds of movies, and then launch into the reality of life as a young person with cancer. He quickly sweeps Hazel off her feet, and the two teenagers bond over understanding the cancer community, the near-brushes with death, and a unique perspective on the absurdity of life. There she meets the incredibly charming, confident, and handsome Augustus "Gus" Waters ( Ansel Elgort), whose cancer is in remission after having his leg amputated the year before. Hazel ( Shailene Woodley) is a terminal cancer patient who reluctantly attends a cancer survivors' support group. Although the movie can sometimes get lost in its fluffy fatalism, The Fault in Our Stars still manages to tug at the heartstrings thanks largely to the mature, charming, shining performances from it lead actors.
#THE FAULT IN OUR STARS FULL MOVIE EGYBEST HOW TO#
It turns cancer into a club where only members know how to truly live, and that life on the inside has a unique set of values. Josh Boone's The Fault in Our Stars attempts to embrace the positive by smirking right back at cancer.

These words want to turn a blind eye to suffering and instead dance around in sunshine and rainbows while tumors metastasize and organs fail. Words like "humor" and "love" rarely enter the conversation unless they're provided in the most mawkish context. We use these violent words because cancer causes pain and death. Words like "fight" and "survive" are used.
