Shailene Woodley with Ansel Elgort in The Fault in Our Stars.
If you've read John Green's novel you'll know that this drama about the romance between two cancer-stricken teenagers is no picnic -- and neither is this lengthy film.
Predictably, director Josh Boone's adaptation makes the most of the sad and devastating moments in the story, but he also manages to
capture the humour and honesty that makes the novel so striking.
The Fault in Our Stars has a 16-year-old protagonist but, like The Book Thief, its appeal is much broader than the label of young-adult novel. It speaks to a younger audience, such as the two young women who giggled next to me during the romantic moments, but the themes of life, love and loss are for everyone.
Shailene Woodley is perfectly cast as spunky Hazel, who has stage-four thyroid cancer and is living on borrowed time thanks to an experimental drug that has shrunk her tumours and prolonged her life.
She's an articulate, observant and acerbic narrator who is both heartbreaking and heartwarming as she attempts to debunk the myths of living and dying with cancer.
