Wow, it's been a while, no, in fact, a decade, since our last teenage romantic story told. While Nicholas Sparks' film adaptations have had persistently tried to sustain his classic streak, A Walk to Remember (2002) and The Notebook (2004) exclusively, the subsequent adapted screenplays fell short, personally and mainly due to miscasting, The Last Song (2010) and The Lucky One (2012) curtly (with the exception of Dear John (2010) which was appropriately celebrated).
The grass is indeed greener on the other side, John Green is the morning dew to our eyes. The Fault In Our Stars felt fresh; and like anything fresh, it isn't contaminated with schmaltz nor the tandem outshone the other. Neither the leading actors were seen hugging the camera because they're beautiful people. This, too, was accounted for by the weight of the story. Although while Russovoir thinks it's easy to sympathize with these kinds of film genres, the genre of illness/death as the chord that snaps us (My Sister's Keeper (2009), Letters to God (2010), and from which the reality of things that we do sympathize for the ill and/or dying - that's what makes us human, there are elements in the film that, if one could connect them, one could say is a constellation of beauty.
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| "Gus, I'm a grenade." |
All begins at point 1, dialogue. Okay? Okay; Pain demands to be felt; You gave me a forever within the numbered days. You know how far will these go? "After all this time? Always." That far (if you could name the film it came from, Russovoir has made his point). It's all about that one attributable word, line, phrase, sentence imparted that lingers and later engraved to the audience. "I miss you so much, it hurts." You should already know this. Point 2, chemistry. It should be obvious in a romantic genre and yet some had had no reaction. Shailene Woodley was a perfect cast, both standing alone and alongside another perfect love interest Ansel Elgort (shitty last name, by the way). The exchange of expressions were never stilted nor deficient; it was, deafeningly, ineffable. That which, critically, all points lead to a vertex, point 3, rapport. Unbroken to their chemistry, however the story will unfold. Point 4, the relativity of perceptive teenage romance, as opposed to solely reactive. You do not (just) fall in love with the idea of love, which commonly kicks in quick. Perceptive romance is written lyrically, and often tragically, to complicate it. Only when something basic but complicated that we value it. In the words of James Morrison, "If it was easy, it wouldn't mean nothing though." (Love Is Hard). And finally, point 5. Perceptive romance is especially effective because points 1, 2, 3, and 4 are visible beyond the naked eye. Point 5 is, ultimately, the lucrative story weight.
All of this was carefully planned (okay, so maybe halfway, as we already are in the subject of perceptive) five points mean five stars. If we scatter them astronomically precise as to when it was first located and connected them, we've got ourselves a Cancer (google it).
