"I believe we have a choice in this world...about how to tell sad stories. On the one hand, you can sugarcoat it. Where nothing is too messed up that it can't be fixed with a Peter Gabriel song. I like that version as much as the next girl does. It just isn't the truth. This is the truth."After months of waiting, I saw The Fault in Our Stars movie on opening night with some friends. The theater was so crowded that they had to turn many people in line behind us away!
Hazel Grace Lancaster was played by Shailene Woodley (Divergent), Augustus Waters was played by Ansel Elgort, their friend Isaac by Nat Woolf, and Mr. and Mrs. Lancaster by Sam Trammell and Laura Dern respectively.
Above are the opening lines to the movie, and right away Hazel tells the viewer that this is not your traditional love story. My friends agreed that this was one of the best parts of the movie because it makes the story more real, and less Nicholas Sparks-esque where everything is made better with an apology in the rain and a dramatic kiss.
Hazel Grace Lancaster was played by Shailene Woodley (Divergent), Augustus Waters was played by Ansel Elgort, their friend Isaac by Nat Woolf, and Mr. and Mrs. Lancaster by Sam Trammell and Laura Dern respectively.
Above are the opening lines to the movie, and right away Hazel tells the viewer that this is not your traditional love story. My friends agreed that this was one of the best parts of the movie because it makes the story more real, and less Nicholas Sparks-esque where everything is made better with an apology in the rain and a dramatic kiss.
Here are a few small differences between the book by John Green and the movie:
- Hazel's friend Kaitlyn and Gus's ex-girlfriend Caroline Mathers do not appear in the movie. Although Kaitlyn had a small role in the book, she offers a view into just how removed Hazel is from a normal teenage lifestyle. Caroline, who dies of brain cancer before the novel begins, has a pivotal role because she weighs heavily on Hazel's mind as she wonders what effect her death had on Gus.
- No V for Vendetta. When Hazel and Gus first meet at support group, Gus invited her to his house to watch the movie and in in the book, Hazel summarizes it by saying: "The movie was about this heroic guy in a mask who died heroically for Natalie Portman, who's pretty badass and very hot and does not have anything approaching my puffy steroid face." The plot of the movie symbolizes Gus's obsession with heroism, and his quest to live a meaningful life.
- The ending. Very small changes are made, but they were definitely for the better. Unfortunately I can't explain it any more than that because...SPOLIER ALERT.
"Do you know what Dom Perignon said when he invented champagne? Come quickly! I am tasting the stars!" and a moment later he adds "We have bottled all of the stars for you this evening, my young friends."
The reason Hazel and Gus travel to Amsterdam is so that Hazel can find out from her favorite author what happens at the end of his novel, An Imperial Affliction which ends mid-sentence. It can be inferred that it ends this way because the main character, Anna, has died, but Hazel wants the author to tell her what happens to Anna's mother, the Dutch Tulip Man, and Anna's pet hamster.
Watching the movie helped me to realize that Hazel needs these answers because An Imperial Affliction is representative of her own life - she needs to know that the people closest to her will be okay, will continue to live a happy life, after she is gone.
So, you might be thinking, "Bridget, why do you love this book so much?! You've done so many blog posts about it! It's time to write about something else!" That is true. (There are a plethora of posts by the way :)).
The answer to your question comes in two parts: 1) It's romantic. While watching the movie, I couldn't keep the giddy fangirl smile off of my face during all of the gushy parts. 2) I love this book, and John Green (my friends say that if he was a 16 year old boy, they would all swoon after him in a heartbeat) for that matter, because he somehow knows how to combine all of those smart, deeply meaningful metaphors with the hilarity and reality of being a teenager. The Fault in Our Stars somehow manages to express everything I love about writing - the symbolism, the emotion, the ability to make a reader think and feel a certain way - in a style that is captivating, yet loose. It's a sad story, but not a sad book. TFiOS celebrates life, and the beauty that can be found within it, if we choose to look.
