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Disclaimer: This is not a review full of spoilers. Here I will only offer my thoughts and recommend it based on certain criteria. You must watch the movie for yourself and enjoy it in all of its pure, unfiltered, brand new glory.

Everybody and their mother has been talking about The Fault in our Stars. Seriously—everyone I know has either seen it or is planning on seeing it. Although I never read the book, I’ve been wanting to see it since the first trailer I saw for it. However, I haven’t been in the mood to sob uncontrollably until the point of muteness and mourn for the losses of characters based on real people. Despite these reservations, I went with a couple friends to see it this weekend because 1) one of my friends wanted to and 2) I secretly wanted to as well. Plus, 22 Jump Street had just come out so I figured I could watch it some other time.

As I had predicted, I did sob uncontrollably until the point of muteness and mourn for the losses of characters based on real people. I literally cried so much (silently heaving, mind you) that my throat got sore and my nose got stuffy. Luckily enough, I managed to successfully blot my incessant tears—otherwise I would have looked like a raccoon. The movie is as heart-wrenching, touching, emotive, and beautiful as they say. I expected to cry often and leave the theater in tears (which I did), but the movie still surprised me with its emotional depth and delicately-created plot.

For those of you who read the book, I’ve been informed that it follows the plot really well minus two smaller parts. Because I had not read the book, I was surprised by a plot twist and the ending. Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort (along with the other actors) did an incredible job acting. But I mean superb—it was all so believable and relatable. The movie accurately portrayed the harsh realities of life (especially life with cancer), but still left its audience with a glimmer of hope. Personally, I felt that the film put a lot of things into perspective and made me really appreciate my own health, happiness, etc.

The soundtrack was great and featured very appropriately-timed music. The artistic liberties of the film, mostly with sound and text, were refreshing and also appropriate for the film. I highly recommend this film to anyone who’s willing to weep and reflect. It made me want to read the book (no surprise there)!

If you’ve seen The Fault in our Stars, please let me know your thoughts below! Or if you have any recommendations for current films, comment as well!

Name: The Fault in our Stars

Year: 2014

Actors: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Laura Dern, Sam Trammell

Rating: 4.5/5