Film Review – The Fault In Our Stars (2014)

The moment has finally arrived! My review of my most anticipated film of the year, that I have been so excited about seeing since January. Needless to say when Saturday evening came rolling round, I had my ticket in one hand, my sweets in the other, I was literally just a mass of excitement. I’m extremely pleased to report that, despite reading a couple of pretty negative reviews a few days before, and a tiny bit of worry in the back of my head that I was going to be left disappointed by the film transition of one of my top five favourite books ever, I couldn’t contain how over the moon I was that it was finally going to see the film. I’m exceptionally pleased to inform you though, I was not disappointed in the slightest; The Fault In Our Stars was quite frankly, just amazing.

Everyone who has asked me what I thought of it so far this week, I’ve replied with the same comment; aside from the Harry Potter series, The Fault In Our Stars has got to be the best book to film adaptation I have personally ever seen. Everything was perfect. The characters were exactly how id imagined them in my head when reading the book, as were all the locations and settings the characters found themselves in; it was almost as if the director had taken out how I had seen the book unfold in my head while reading it, and made the film directly from these memories. I don’t think I will ever be able to express just how amazingly superb I found The Fault In Our Stars.

The characters that I had grown to love so much when reading the novel at the beginning of this year came alive in front of my eyes, and all of the emotions that I experienced when reading it became all the more prominent when seeing everything happen with my own eyes. The film is as devastatingly heartbreaking as the book. Nothing has been taken away from John Green’s masterpiece and the realistic emotion that comes hand in hand with it, and at the same time, no over the top emotion has been added on, as has been done with other book adaptations in Hollywood. I keep using the word, but I cannot convey enough just how perfect everything about the film was. What Josh Boone has done with this adaptation is really convey to audiences the utter grief, but at the same time the happiness and optimism, that the main characters of Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Walters possess despite their completely unimaginable situation they find themselves in at such young ages. Boone has done for the film exactly what Green originally did with his novel, and it’s apparent from the very start of the film that Boone has put a lot of time, effort and dedication into making The Fault In Our Stars just right; he is clearly as passionate about the story as Green himself is.

The transition from paper to screen has clearly been an extremely smooth one for The Fault In Our Stars. I think it’s the first time in a long time that I’ve seen a film adapted from a novel that I’ve had no complaints or criticisms about on leaving the cinema. For me, Boone’s adaptation is completely flawless. Others may disagree, but I can’t find anything to call up as ruining the star crossed love story. Unfortunately though, with such an emotionally charged viewing experience containing bucket loads of tears, as well as tears of laughter, a similar situation has occurred as when I turned the last page of the novel; feeling the need to everyday just curl up into a ball and cry for a year. I expect it will be sometime before this feeling comes to an end, but while I spend my days attempting to recover, I highly recommend that all of you that have not yet seen The Fault In Our a Stars, whether you’ve read the book or not, to go and take a trip the cinema. Now one of my favourite films as well as my favourite book, a firm and very well deserved 10/10.

Just remember tissues. Lots of tissues.