Sunday, June 29, 2014

UU A Way Of Life at the movies - The Fault In Our Stars

From the IMDB web site:

Hazel and Augustus are two teenagers who share an acerbic wit, a disdain for the conventional, and a love that sweeps them on a journey. Their relationship is all the more miraculous, given that Hazel's other constant companion is an oxygen tank, Gus jokes about his prosthetic leg, and they meet and fall in love at a cancer support group.

This is a movie about life, death, love, and relationships, mostly teenage romantic relationships when the teens are dying of cancer. It's a tearjerker and emotionally manipulative and too long, 126 minutes.

The deeper themes that could have been explored such as parents losing children just as their child is coming of age, the support of friends and community, the inherent injustice of young people dying before their allotted 3 score and 10 were not really dealt with. The Fault In Our Stars is a teen romance movie with a macabre twist, and that supposedly is worth the price of admission.

I wanted to like this movie. There isn't much on this summer except insipid kids movies, movies about aliens, demons, super heroes, and rogue cops. They don't seem to make interesting movies for grown-ups any more, and I was hoping this might be one, but alas, it is disappointing.

If you are up for a good cry and watching two teenagers dying, then this movie might be for you, but I can think of about 10,001 and other things to be doing with your summer days more enjoyable like playing bocce or croquet.

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