She has no interest in going to the local support group – led by comedian Mike Birbiglia, strumming hokey feel good songs on a guitar and desperately attempting to lead discussion and be hip – but for the sake of her doting mother (Laura Dern), she puts on a good face.Īt one meeting, however, she catches the eye of Augustus (Ansel Elgort, who also played Woodley’s brother in 'Divergent'), a considerate, occasionally impulsive fellow patient who lost his leg to cancer, but won the fight for the time being. Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley of 'Divergent') is a young teenager whose life with cancer has turned her into a realist with an acerbic snap and oxygen tank in tow. It’s a movie that mixes hurt, humanity and humor with surprisingly rewarding results. But better yet, those moments – and 'The Fault In Our Stars' in general – felt earned and sincere, not the result of emotional rigging. I only welled up once (or twice … or maybe three times). Luckily, none of these things particularly happened. I was concerned about 'The Fault In Our Stars' trying too hard, prying and goading me into tears like a gentler version of Scut Farkus from 'A Christmas Story,' yelling 'Come on, cry! Cry, baby, cry!'Īnd, of course, I was concerned it would all work, that I would emerge from the theater a blubbering, watery eyed mess whose notes were unintelligible damp wads and whose dignity was long gone.

I was concerned about the script being filled with eye-rolling attempts to be profound despite looking through a heavily romanticized, naively love-focused, teenaged lens of the world. I was concerned about the movie simply being comprised solely of carefully manufactured human emotions instead of real, genuine emotions about cancer getting the Nicholas Sparks treatment where serious ailments are simply used as a lazy sadness generators or narrative push. In fact, that was my biggest fear going into 'The Fault In Our Stars,' the new teen romantic drama which I’m still not convinced isn’t just a scheme by Kleenex to boost sales and stock prices. There’s something a little disingenuous about many tearjerkers, the fact that many of them desperately want to peddle soft, squishy, calculated sadness in the hopes of making the audience cry – and more importantly, making money.

The fault in our stars movie actress