Release Date: Friday, June 6, 2014
Running Time: 126 minutes
Genre: Drama/Romance
Director: Josh Boone
Writer: Scott Neustadter (screenplay), Michael H. Weber (screenplay), and John Green (book)
Rating: Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, some sexuality and brief strong language
Description: Hazel and Gus are two teenagers who share an acerbic wit, a disdain for
the conventional, and a love that sweeps them on a journey. Their
relationship is all the more miraculous given that Hazel’s other
constant companion is an oxygen tank, Gus jokes about his prosthetic
leg, and they meet and fall in love at a cancer support group.
CAST
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| Shailene Woodley as Hazel |
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| Ansel Elgort as Gus |
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| Nat Wolff as Isaac |
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| Laura Dern as Hazel’s mother Frannie |
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| Sam Trammell as Hazel’s father Michael |
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| Willem Dafoe as Author Van Houten |
LESLIE’S NOTE’S
Wow. Just wow. As a 13 year non-Hodgkin Lymphoma survivor, this movie was hard to watch, sad, and also uplifting, all at the same time. I saw this movie in the movie theater with my parents, who are both in their 70’s, a few days after it was released. We all liked the movie and my mother cried during the whole film! At the time, it debuted as Number One at the box office on its opening weekend.
All the cast members do a great job, especially the young actors portraying cancer patients. As a former newsletter Writer/Editor for a support group of families of children with cancer, the treatment of Pediatric Cancer, along with all cancer, is not pretty. A cancer diagnosis affects the whole family, not just the patient. And it can be tougher for teenagers who are still trying to deal with normal teen issues. I applaud author John Green for writing this book and also the film company for turning it into an amazing movie.
Even though Shailene Woodley seems to be the new “Hollywood It Girl” with breakthrough performances this year in this movie along with Divergent, my two daughters and I have watched her since she first appeared in the ABC Family drama “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” during the summer of 2008, as Amy, a teenage girl who finds out in the first episode that she became pregnant at her high school band camp. Shailene went on to star as George Clooney’s daughter, Alexandra, in the Oscar winning movie “The Descendants”. My daughter, Lauren, and I saw this movie while we were in Hawaii attending a National Farm Bureau convention that my husband, Agriculture Journalist Stewart Doan, was a featured speaker at one of the sessions. Lauren, who just turned 19 that week, and I loved “The Descendants” and we loved the fact that we were able to watch it when it was first released in a movie theater in Honolulu! Later that spring, my other daughter, Sara, who had just turned 15, and I saw “The Descendants” in Little Rock and Sara loved the movie as well. A few months later, my husband passed away suddenly from an undetected Pulmonary Embolism. Shailene’s acting in “The Descendants” and in “The Fault in our Stars” hit me right to the core.
If anyone has any free time this summer, I highly recommend binge watching any and every TV show, movie, student film and music video Shailene, Ansel, and Nat appear in.
Favorite. Line. Ever.
Gus: “See
we may not look like much. Between the three of us, we have 5 legs, 4
eyes, 2 and half working pairs of lungs. But, we also have 2 dozen eggs
so if I were you, I’d go back inside.”
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