Fim review: The Fault in Our Stars

How to review The Fault in Our Stars without breaking down into a puddle of tears at the memory of the film - that's the tough question.

What's not a tough question is whether or not the film is good, because it is. Phew.

Adhering closely to John Green's novel of the same name, The Fault in Our Stars (let's just call it TFIOS from now on) follows cancer sufferer Hazel Lancaster (Shailene Woodley), who is forced to join a teenage cancer support group by her mother. There, she meets Augustus 'Gus' Waters (Ansel Elgort), who had one of his legs amputated after getting cancer, and finds herself reluctantly falling in love.

Woodley is excellent as the sarcastic, witty Hazel. I know people have said this before, but Woodley just has this face you want to watch, it's so full of expression and she uses all of it to get a point across. TFIOS is told through Hazel's point of view, and Woodley creates a Hazel true to the book, and who you want to hear from.

Wearing a tube connected to an oxygen tank that she carries around with her at all times, Woodley makes you manage to simultaneously forget that Hazel is always literally carrying the weight of her cancer with her, while also making you constantly aware that she's not a typical teenager. However, while Hazel is not a typical teenager, she is a normal one, and her cancer only heightens that - she rolls her eyes at her mum's behaviour, sulks at not getting her own way, and is overly dramatic when her mum tells her that she's depressed. In the midst of a story about two teenagers with cancer falling in love, Woodley's Hazel can make you belly laugh.

Elgort is a great Gus, with his charm and cheekiness. He's good looking, but not too good looking, and has a smile that could light up the sky. Elgort is at his best during one-to-one scenes with Woodley, when he's playing to a group his Gus occasionally veers into supreme cheesiness and cockiness. On the whole though, he's easily the 18-year-old boy every 17-year-old girl should fall in love with, because he's sweet and kind and intense but not too intense.

I loved watching Hazel and Gus's journey, metaphorical and literal, which took them, as in the novel, to Amsterdam to meet Hazel's favourite writer, the reclusive and mean Peter Van Houten (played as both comedic relief and villain by Willem Defoe). Seeing both Hazel and Gus change over the course of the film alternately made me feel hopeful, and desperately sad. There were parts that made tears well up in my eyes that I really didn't expect (the restaurant scene in Amsterdam, Hazel climbing all those stairs with steely eyed determination), and parts that made me laugh that I didn't expect (Van Houten being a complete arse, the guy who leads the support group). TFIOS is a rollercoaster of emotion, which is what makes it such a great film.

The other thing that makes it a great film is the relationships it explores. Of course, there's Hazel and Gus, but there are plenty of other relationships that stab at your heart and make you feel. Hazel's parents (played by Sam Trammell and Laura Dern) are funny and loving, and Dern is responsible for one of the most heartbreaking interactions of the film. Hazel and Gus's separate friendships with Issac (Nat Wolff - probably the best male actor in the film) are nuanced - each gets something different from Issac and gives something different to him - and as a trio they're fabulous. And Van Houten, the most antisocial character in the film, who acts as a counterpoint for all the emotion filled relationships we see, is also unexpectedly revealed as a man to whom relationships are important.

TFIOS is a gorgeous film, and the reason it's gorgeous is because it's full of heart and because you care about all the characters on screen. But, as a warning, you're not going to be okay after seeing this film. Okay?

Book review: Anthem for Jackson Dawes by Celia Bryce

"Two teenagers fight the biggest battle of all" says the tagline for Anthem for Jackson Dawes.

And it's not untrue. Fourteen-year-old Megan Bright is admitted to hospital for chemotherapy, where she meets the enigmatic, rebellious, funny Jackson Dawes, a fellow cancer patient. The two quickly fall for each other.

Does this story sound slightly familiar? If John Green's The Fault in Our Stars came to mind when you read the above description, then you're not the only one. The paralells between the two novels are obvious, even though the settings might be different.

Much of Megan's story is told while she's in hospital, where just five days stretch out for almost half the book. Time stretches and contracts strangely in Anthem for Jackson Dawes, perhaps a reflection of the way time can slow down or rush past when your whole life changes.

We meet Jackson pretty quickly, and he is enigmatic and rebellious and funny. Unfortunately, the reader doesn't get to spend too much time with him, and I'm unsure what, besides their shared age, makes Megan fall for him so hard, so fast.

Megan herself is an interesting character. I found her whiny, immature, old beyond her years and sensible all at the same time, among a host of other things. Then I remembered that she is 13 for most of this novel, and that time in a young girl's life can be confusing, manifesting itself through ups and downs in personality. Add in that Megan has cancer, and it's not surprising that Megan is all over the place. 

Anthem for Jackson Dawes is an alright book, but having recently read The Fault in Our Stars, I really couldn't see it as anything but a poor relation to Green's novel. Megan and Jackson are poor imitations of Hazel and Gus, and the magic in The Fault in Our Stars is missing from Bryce's novel. In another world, Anthem for Jackson Dawes might have been a wonderful novel (and it is truly heartbreaking), but it's just unlucky that The Fault in Our Stars is around to shine much brighter.