A very effective tearjerker for viewers who want a polished, accessible young-adult romance built around illness, first love, and emotional catharsis. It’s sweet, sincere, and often moving, but the melodrama and highly stylized dialogue will feel manipulative or overly sentimental to some.
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a patient named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.
Director
Josh Boone
Cast
Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Nat Wolff
Curator Review
Verdict
A very effective tearjerker for viewers who want a polished, accessible young-adult romance built around illness, first love, and emotional catharsis. It’s sweet, sincere, and often moving, but the melodrama and highly stylized dialogue will feel manipulative or overly sentimental to some.
Best for
fans of emotional YA romances
viewers seeking a bittersweet cry
audiences who like earnest, quote-heavy love stories
people interested in illness-centered dramas with a hopeful edge
Skip if
you dislike overt sentimentality
you want a subtle or realistic cancer drama
you’re tired of tragic young-love stories
you prefer romance without heavy emotional manipulation
Overview
The Fault in Our Stars is a carefully engineered heartbreak movie, but it earns more of its tears than its detractors admit. Josh Boone keeps the tone light on its feet for long stretches, letting the chemistry between Hazel and Augustus sell the fantasy of two smart, funny teenagers trying to outtalk mortality. When the film leans into grief, it does so with real force, and that contrast is what gives it staying power for its audience.
Worth noting
At the same time, the movie is very aware of its own quotability and emotional beats, which can make it feel calculated. Some scenes are undeniably manipulative, and the dialogue often reaches for a polished, literary sadness that may not land for everyone. But the performances are committed, and the film’s sincerity is hard to dismiss even when it overreaches.
Bottom line
As a romance, it works best as a bittersweet wish-fulfillment story about being seen and loved under impossible circumstances. As a drama, it’s less interested in medical realism than in the emotional truth of living with limited time. If that tradeoff appeals to you, it’s a strong, if uneven, watch.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Madison Wake (1.5★) · 6158 likes
I feel really bad because the two things I associate the Anne Frank house with is the kiss scene from fault in our stars and the time justin Bieber visited it and said that if she were still alive she would be a belieber
trin (3★) · 4201 likes
john greens kind of evil for building up their first kiss to happen at anne franks house
shay (3★) · 3180 likes
the saddest scene in this movie has nothing to do with the relationship between gus and hazel but was the scene when blind isaac was doing his eulogy for gus and said that when the scientists in the future come to his house to make him try on the robot eyes so that he could see he would just tell the scientists to piss off because he doesn't want to see a world without augustus waters like fuck off i'm crying right now
Karsten (1.5★) · 3169 likes
You know you made something awful when Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe, AND Charli XCX can't save it. No better way to start an Ansel Elgort binge than by realizing one film deep that maybe it really is just his looks.
Megan Bitchell (1★) · 2375 likes
The second worst thing to happen in the Anne Frank house
Themes
young love, terminal illness, grief, mortality, hope, first romance, support groups, coming-of-age
Topics
YA romance, tearjerker, bittersweet, illness drama, coming-of-age, melodrama, emotional, 2010s, first love