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 met and fell in love at a cancer support group. imdb

This quiet film based on one of the most popular books by John Green – the uber-YA-author – is a lot bigger than it looks. It could even be called an Important Film for two reasons – it is the first of his books to be made into a film and this man is, well, Stephanie Meyer (Twilight et al.) without the hysteria (and with better writing skills).

Green’s books are the most well-thumbed and maybe even the most loved in my younger daughter’s library. He is good, really good. He writes like his target generation talks and thinks. He writes about things that fascinate or frighten them and he writes a ripping yarn. Then wins an award for it – just about everything he has ever written has been nominated for something.

Time magazine says he is bigger than Tom Cruise. But even being that big didn’t him from being on set every day of filming to help the cast with character insights and (given his interest in YouTube filmmaking) maybe even help the fledgling director, Josh Boone.

The second reason is how advertising was handled for the target audience – detailed in an article by Jen Chaney – using social media. Which must have worked because box office takings on opening weekend in the US were roughly four times what it cost to make (!!! Even The Gruen Transfer would call that a successful campaign).

So, after all that hype, what is it like? Richard Wilkins called the movie ‘this generation’s Breakfast Club’ when he reviewed it.

I’ll just call it wonderful. Enjoyable. Honest.

The tagline, ‘one sick love story’ encapsulates the sweet yet cynical and realistic heart of a film about two young people with cancer who fall in love.

It is not a disease-of-the-month special. It is not Hollywood-ised in any way – there is no immediately identifiable, anthemic theme song (although the Ed Sheeran song is gorgeous). There is no makeover scene, not one montage and no syrupy dying young, leaving pretty corpses nonsense.

This is an open-eyed account of what the main characters, their families and their (limited circle of) friends go through. It is so honest that it even shows how non-family members are NOT allowed in ICU. Something that has personally bugged me since our family had firsthand experience with ICU – how, in movies and on TV, people just stroll in and out. Not true.

It makes a really strong attempt to show, subtly but clearly, how Hazel sees herself and her story. And how that changes when she lets Gus inside her shell.

I was captivated, I was moved … and I laughed a lot too.

The two leads, who curiously played brother and sister in Divergent, are note perfect, they even look like everyday teens. Shailene Woodley is a-mazing as Hazel. The way she carries herself throughout is so, so effective – her exhaustion, her struggle for breath, her refusal to give in are never, ever over-dramatises but always there in every action. Her performance, and indeed the whole mood of the film, is not ‘look at me I’ll win an Oscar for acting this sick and tragic’ it is absolutely the normal stuff. The everyday ‘will he call me’, ‘I love this book’, ‘parents mean well but they are dumb’ stuff of a teenager’s life.

Ansel Elgort radiates life and vitality as Augustus. Yes, he character says and does some cheesy things (just like a lot of 18 year old boys) but then he offers an honest glimpse of himself and not only wins Hazel’s heart but that of the whole audience.

The adults are really good too but they only swim into focus when Hazel or Gus focus on them, just like they do in real life.

The simple, even pared back, production values work very well. Hazel does not wear designer clothes and the family house is not full of mod-cons. There is no product placement at all, with even the constant text messages between Gus and Hazel shown as animation rather than on an iphone screen.

It is not only entertaining but it is memorable and I recommend it wholeheartedly – and I am off now to read the book.