Rating of
2.5/4
Corny to a "Fault"
Looneymanthegreat - wrote on 06/10/14
The Fault in Our Stars is unique among YA hit films in that it deals with more grounded, real-world situations instead of fantasy Sci-Fi scenarios; and I think that’s great. Unfortunately though, the movie takes its solid premise and doesn’t explore it enough to justify its existence. It also contains a lot of oddly pretentious corniness that keeps it from registering on a fully emotional level.
The movies is touted as a tear jerker, and while it's certainly very sad, it constantly pulls you out of the story with actions, lines and events that don’t feel like they would happen in the real world. The movie can’t seem to decide weather it’s a serious story that explores the short lives of young cancer patients or a silly romance that panders to its young female audience.
Elgorf’s character is pretty bad. Throughout the movie he only occasionally convinces that he is anything other then a teenage dream. At first, when the character tries to get a would be romantic partner to read a video game book, the character seems like he might be a balance of the corny boyfriend characters we’ve seen in Twilight and Divergent, and a real teenage dude. But as the movie develops he becomes more cheese then man, and overall doesn’t really convince as a character.
My biggest problem with the “Fault” is it’s lack of message. The movie ends with a main character dying of cancer and a certainty that other characters will die as well, but we learn little about what it’s like to deal with cancer and certain death. We just learn that death and cancer stink, but I assume most people in the audience already know that. Woodley’s character, while well acted, is kind of boring. You’d think that getting cancer would draw out personality traits, but she is just another boring blank slate that’s supposed to reflect the audience. Over all the movie doesn’t tell us anything about the characters or death; It doesn’t even tell us that there is no message, it mostly just focuses on its hokey love story.
The movie is partially saved by the areas not pertaining to the romance. Cancer is a heavy topic, and the movie really doesn’t pull its punches when it comes to the harsh realities that come with it. It’s an intriguing premise, especially for a movie targeting young women. I applaud the film makers for taking something difficult and making it palatable but not light.
The Fault in our Stars is just another corny romance with darker themes and bigger ideas thrown in. it’s better then most corny romances, but romance isn’t really my genre, so it would have really had to blow it out of the park in order to win me over. If you enjoy these sorts of movies, then you’ll love “Fault,” but otherwise you can probably skip this one.
