33. The Fault in the Fault in Our Stars

So, like everyone else, I read the Fault in our Stars last year. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it.
I'm sure you all know the premise, if not the story. Hazel has cancer and she meets "hot boy" Augustus at a cancer support group. They bond, they become friends, they fall in love and when that happens, there's never a happy ending is there? (oh the cynical nature of the young author of this blog!) So despite my dislike for soppy romance novels, I did kind of like this. I definitely didn't cry tho (I did).

But anyway, I'm not here to talk about a book I read a year ago. I'm here to talk about the film.

I'm always sceptical about books being turned into movies and do have a rule that, where possible, I will read the book before I see the movie. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't.

Anyway, I'm sitting watching the Fault in our Stars as I type this. So far? I'm not sure. In hindsight, I enjoyed this book but watching the film is reminding me of things I didn't like about it.
I find Hazel and Augustus, as characters, to be really...dull and flat. I'm sorry but I don't find myself connecting to them at all. Not that they're unlikeable but I'm just not feeling it.

Call me a bitter and twisted little girl but the whole love at first sight thing is so sickly and saccharine that it is unreal. I simply can't get on board with their love. Now, I cannot lie, I believe in love at first sight...well, love at first meeting (I kind of feel like you have to at least have a conversation with someone first) but locking eyes across the room of a support group and within weeks going across the world to find an author...ugh please. It just falls out of the sky and hits you like a truck. Which I guess is kind of what happens with love (are my bitter defenses showing weakness here?) but it's just...ugh. Especially when she tries to distance herself from him because she's a "grenade" but he says it won't work. While I understand what they're trying to do in the film, and thus the book, I just can't get into it. I don't have any strong feelings towards any of the characters and I'm not finding myself drawn into their stories.

One thing I do like is the way they do the communication between Hazel and Gus via text. It's reminiscent of the book cover and kind of sweet. I'm so torn about this, both the book and the movie. On the one hand I'm like "oh my god, it's such a cliche!" but on the other, I'm with Hazel while she's constantly checking her phone to see if he's text and wanting to go on picnics and whatnot.

I'll give it one thing - it's true to the book because I felt exactly the same way when I read that.

One redeeming feature the film does have? Sam Trammell aka Sam Merlotte from True Blood as Hazel Grace's total DILF :)

I guess this film has brought out my soppy side, the soppy romantic side I try oh so hard to keep hidden away, even though I'm a little bit disappointed by it over all. I was slightly disappointed by the book, but movies from books will always disappoint me anyway.