The Rant in Our Stars

[StealthySkeptic]

I went to see it after having read and loved the book in the company of three girls in their late teens. I liked it though not as much as I liked the book.

But then I'm a guuurl.

I might add the critics liked it too. It's 80% fresh with 86% view approval.

Some of my favorite quotes:


“The marks humans leave are too often scars.”

“Grief does not change you, Hazel. It reveals you.”

“Without pain, how could we know joy?' This is an old argument in the field of thinking about suffering and its stupidity and lack of sophistication could be plumbed for centuries but suffice it to say that the existence of broccoli does not, in any way, affect the taste of chocolate.”

“Whenever you read a cancer booklet or website or whatever, they always list depression among the side effects of cancer. But, in fact, depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying.”


“We are literally in the heart of Jesus," he said. "I thought we were in a church basement, but we are literally in the heart of Jesus."
"Someone should tell Jesus," I said. "I mean, it's gotta be dangerous, storing children with cancer in your heart."
"I would tell Him myself," Augustus said, "but unfortunately I am literally stuck inside of His heart, so He won't be able to hear me.”

Well I'm glad you enjoyed it, and certainly don't let my negative impression of it detract from that enjoyment.

I think when it comes to these hyper popular chick flicks people can only take one of two stances: loving or hating them. The value of entertainment (particularly film for this discussion although we could easily apply this reasoning to TV shows, video games, etc.) lies in its subjectivity. Although one can point to objective technical accomplishments or problems, for the most part two opinions about a film can be equally valid, if supported by examples from the film itself.

For instance, I can understand why you (not just as a "girl" as again I can enjoy chick flicks, but perhaps many girls prefer to view films on an emotional level first and as escapism and on an intellectual level last; for instance I watched an interview once where someone said that girls focus on the romance between Han Solo and Leia and boys like the lightsabers and explosions) enjoy the quotes as witty and insightful in some way, even though I found myself rolling my eyes because teenagers don't talk like that.

I think that perhaps one's perception of a film is inevitably created by the way the film itself presents itself and how that conjoins or clashes with audience expectations. My guess is you knew what The Fault in Our Stars was trying to be because you'd read the book already whereas I was, perhaps based on how well received the book was, expecting a serious, realistic cancer drama interwoven with three dimensional teenage characters finding love and THEN wringing the tears out of you as a result. I was similarly disappointed by The Notebook because I expected grounded, realistic romance and got a glorified Harlequin novel, but perhaps if I had read the novel and enjoyed it my guard would have been lowered.

In a similar way, I enjoyed The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants when I was younger, largely because of quotes like this-

"I'd like to think that fate had a hand in what happened that summer. That it was the pants' destiny to find us. Where they came from and why they chose us... ... well, that will always be a mystery. But perhaps that was part of their miracle. That they sensed in that moment how much we needed them. How much we needed some little bit of faith to hold onto... ... when it seemed like everything we believed in was about to slip away. But wait a minute, I'm getting ahead of myself....We'd been a foursome for as long as I could remember."

-because even though I know from an objective and intellectual standpoint that this quote is silly and that nobody actually talks like this, Sisterhood solidly established a quartet of characters I could get behind and realistically developed their characterizations so that I could also understand that what they were saying was not only insightful, but realistic for THEM to say based on what I knew of their characters.

I suppose for me, the quotes aren't so much the problem, as saccahrine as they are, as the fact that the sickly sweet nature of them so often conflicts with the pretended realism of the characters; especially given the gravity of their situation, I did not expect them to be quipping as often as they did. So to each their own, and keep on enjoying The Fault in Our Stars while I keep on detesting it.