Hazel Grace Lancaster has been dying since she was thirteen. A drug called Phalanxifor has bought her time, nobody knows how much, and she carries an oxygen tank everywhere. Her mother makes her go to a cancer support group in a church basement, where she meets Augustus Waters, who lost a leg to osteosarcoma and puts unlit cigarettes in his mouth as a metaphor. The Fault in Our Stars made 307 million dollars on a 12 million dollar budget, and its fans have never been quiet about it.
What Happens In Amsterdam
Hazel’s favourite book ends mid-sentence, and its author, Peter Van Houten, lives in Amsterdam and never answers letters. Augustus uses his wish from a charity to take her there. The dinner at Oranjee, the kiss in the Anne Frank House, and the meeting with Van Houten, played by Willem Dafoe as a bitter drunk, are the middle of the film. Then Augustus tells her that his scans lit up like a Christmas tree, and the second half is his, not hers.
Why It Hit So Hard
John Green’s novel was already the biggest young-adult book in years, and the film kept the dialogue. The pre-funeral, where Hazel reads Augustus his eulogy while he is alive, is the scene. Laura Dern as Hazel’s mother is the quiet best performance. Nat Wolff as Isaac, going blind and smashing trophies, provides the only relief. “Okay? Okay.”
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