Hazel Grace Lancaster, an intelligent young woman meets the charming Augustus Waters. Both are young, witty, honest, and vulnerable cancer survivors. As they fall in love after support group, they realize their story is a tragic one. Acknowledging their tragedy, they choose one another, whatever their "stars" may have.

Crying in front of people you don't know is an interesting experience. The Fault in Our Stars, originally a novel by John Green was brought to life under the directorship of Josh Boone whose name is on one other movie, Stuck in Love. While this film brought out the tears, it arguably does so due to John Green's creative, original story. What the movie does well, the book excels in; page after page.

While many stories of love have touched our emotions and made us say "oh be still my beating heart," there is something about the honesty in The Fault in Our Stars which makes it stand out. It may not be the best romance ever, but it is unique. It doesn't ignore the fact that people die. We all do. This makes this tragedy work. It raises the question, "What is love when dying is inevitable?"

The two "star"-crossed lovers come to grips with this question early on, ponder it long, and answer fairly correctly. Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley), a far too young teenage girl, meets the smooth (though oh so smoother on the page) Augustus Waters (Ensel Elgort), but it isn't love at first sight. Woodley becomes Hazel in her skill of acting as a person with ailments, health problems, and side effects, evidenced by her performance in The Secret Life of an American Teenager. Woodley makes up for Elgort's struggles. One wonders if he followed her over from their time together in Divergent earlier this year.

Elgort stumbles over lines which were intended to be quick and witty. He has not yet crafted the skill of playing a sick person as Woodley has. His limp is inconsistent and sometimes missing entirely. In the end, he proves charming enough to win the emotions of moviegoers with the help of supporting characters such as Isaac (Nat Wolff) and Hazel's father and mother (Sam Trammell and Laura Dern, respectively).

While most of the camera work is fairly straightforward, we are awarded with occasional, artful shots. The most effective are the low and high angle shots taken of Hazel as she struggles to climb stairs, and even a ladder, with her oxygen tank. The added background narration by Anne Frank makes her struggle very real. This beautifully done scene breaks our hearts slowly. However, there are few like it in the film.

Variations are expected in book to movie adaptations, but there are few in the film. They stuck very tightly to John Green's work (with only two large exceptions) and are well-off for doing so. Augustus and Hazel become something very interesting. They aren't an ideal match. They're honest about their issues and struggles, which at most times are very apparent. They are quirky and funny and brutally honest and winsome and, in many ways, very unselfish.

Though the movie has a sacrificial view of love, it does throw up some worldview red flags. It comes across as very existential. Things seem very up in the air about what is right or wrong. Thankfully, life is cherished. Agnostic and nihilistic views on what happens to us when we die are mentioned. "I don't really know" and "doesn't matter really" are views found within conversation. Only once does Augustus acknowledge the possibility of God and an afterlife but even then it only seems as an insurance policy.

There is very little violence in the film (it's a romance, after all). On occasion, we see scenes of a hospital and the human body struggling in pain. And remember, death is a very real part of this film. Only once do we see too much of the human body as Augustus and Hazel take things to the bedroom, undressing each other. Isaac and his girlfriend get too intimate in the church parking lot. Hazel and Augustus metaphorically not-smoke cigarettes, putting them in their mouths without lighting up. There are multiple prescription medications taken by various characters. Willem Dafoe's character, Van Houten, insists on consuming one alcoholic beverage after another, though he is only on screen for a total of 15-20 minutes max. Hazel and Augustus share a drink themselves, which may have had something to do with the bedroom scene mentioned above. Language mostly consists of the misuse of God's name. There is more infrequent, extreme swearing, usually where the scene becomes very tense (these include the big F-word, p*ss, b*tch, b*st*rd, the "S" word and others). Oh, and there's plenty of kissing.

In reviewing Romeo and Juliet, John Green asks the question, "Is the fault in our stars, or in ourselves?" He answers this question in his novel. It would seem the fault is in our stars. Because the film holds fairly well to Green's text, it finds success, but not in the stars. The film is an emotional rollercoaster and a well-done love story, but it doesn't even ask John Green's question; the question the movie is named after. It tells a great story, but misses the point of the original in many ways. If you have ten dollars and are torn between seeing the film and purchasing the book, get the book. If you can come by another ten, see the film, understanding just what John Green did for the romantic genre in his writing.