I saw this film over the weekend only because it fits the perfect time slot and I heard it was pretty good. Well, I heard right, this was a great movie. It stared Shailene Woodley, as Hazel Grace and Ansel Egort as Gus. These two were brother and sister in ‘Enders Game’, but in this, they were romantically involved. The main storyline is Hazel Grace has a form of cancer that is responding well to a special treatment but is still dying. She ends up meeting Gus at a cancer support group. There is an immediate attraction between the two and they start dating. The heart of this film is the relationship that develops between these two. We are all sucked in like puppy dogs to their new owners. I immediately really liked the Gus character a lot. He seemed like almost the perfect teenage boy that any mother would want her daughter to date. Having said that we are informed he too once had an issue with cancer, losing half of one of his legs and was walking with a prosthetic.
Spoilers…
You soon forget about Gus and instead are redirected to focus on Hazel Grace. They plan a nice trip to Amsterdam growing much closer in an intimate way. At the end of the trip just before coming back home, Gus tells Hazel, he had felt a pain in his hip and after a PET scan it lit up light a Christmas tree. He was terminal. This is one of many very emotional moments that make this film so good. I truly believe if it were not for the terrific acting by both the main parts, the emotions would not have been felt as much. Over the course of the film, you grow to care about both of them and you were totally hit off guard by Gus becoming sick. But this is the sort of twist this film needed because we were all expecting Hazel Grace to be the first to go. I cannot express enough in words how emotional this film can hit you, it must be watched to experience. My head was tilted back, trying to be tough and hold back the tears. This is one of the years best films and I highly recommend it.
*****
