The Fault in Our Stars is a pretty great book turned into a pretty great (but not as great) movie.

For those who have read the book, this is one of the most accurate conversions from book to movie… which might make some sense since John Green (the author and co-star of the vlog brothers YouTube channel) was involved, or at least on-set, for a fair amount of the movie. They really seemed to have a love of the book, not just the title or themes, as a great amount of the dialog and narration is a dead-lift from that book. Only a few changes, mostly things removed and not added (and those will be missed by book readers but not in a pitchfork shaking way).

The movie is a huge tear-jerker without being maudlin and generic… this isn’t a movie about Cancer Kids with Great Big Hollywood Oscar Clip speeches (though Shaileen Woodley deserves a nomination in my book). There were sobs in the theater I was in (and it got a little dusty for me too) but I think they were earned. Yes, you could see them coming, but that didn’t make them any less of a gut-punch because of how well written and well acted those scenes were.

It’s a teen romance about kids with cancer – but it’s smart, witty, and funny – in between ripping your heart out and stomping on it, you see these are real, believable people who won’t always let you feel sorry for them. As a reader of the book, the only thing I felt it didn’t do right was (sickly enough) there wasn’t enough suffering during the end sequences… which is a tough thing to say since too much more might have made the movie difficult to watch. If that makes sense.

Laura Dern is amazing, Shaileen Woodley is (once again) fantastic (she was great in The Spectacular Now too), and Anson Elgort is… good… perhaps a female viewer would have found him more amazing. I didn’t fully buy his acting choices… without going into spoilers.

This movie is very good and you should see it, even if you have to sneak out to the movies to see it if it threatens your macho he-man self.

Score: 88