The Fault in Our Stars (film)

''The Fault in Our Stars'' is a 2014 American coming-of-age romance film directed by Josh Boone, based on John Green's 2012 novel of the same name. The film stars Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, with Laura Dern, Sam Trammell, Nat Wolff, and Willem Dafoe in supporting roles. Woodley plays a sixteen-year-old cancer patient forced by her parents to attend a support group, where she meets and subsequently falls in love with another cancer patient, played by Elgort.

Development began in January 2012 when Fox 2000, a division of 20th Century Fox, optioned the rights to adapt the novel into a feature film. Principal photography began on August 26, 2013, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with a few additional days in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, before concluding on October 16, 2013. Pittsburgh doubled for all of the scenes set in Indianapolis, Indiana, the novel's setting, as well as for some interior scenes set in Amsterdam.

''The Fault in Our Stars'' had its world premiere at Seattle International Film Festival on May 16, 2014, and was released in North America on June 6, 2014, by 20th Century Fox. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise given to Woodley's and Elgort's performances and chemistry together, as well as the screenplay. The film was number one at the box office during its opening weekend and grossed $307million worldwide against a budget of $12million. It was released on Blu-ray and DVD on September 16, 2014, and earned $42million in total domestic video sales.

Plot

Indianapolis teenager Hazel Grace Lancaster is living with thyroid cancer that has spread to her lungs. Believing she is depressed, her mother urges her to attend a weekly cancer patient support group. There, Hazel meets Augustus "Gus" Waters who is at the support group for his friend Isaac, who has eye cancer. Gus lost a leg to bone cancer but has since gone into remission. Hazel and Gus bond over their hobbies and agree to read each other's favorite books. Gus gives Hazel ''The Prince of Dawn'', while Hazel recommends ''An Imperial Affliction'', a novel about a cancer-stricken girl named Anna that parallels Hazel's own experience, but has an abrupt ending. Its author, Peter Van Houten, retreated to Amsterdam following the novel's publication and has not been heard from since.

Weeks later, Gus tells Hazel he has tracked down Van Houten's assistant, Lidewij, and has been corresponding with Van Houten via email. Van Houten says he is only willing to answer their questions in person. Gus then surprises Hazel with tickets to Amsterdam, acquired from a charity organization that fulfills the wishes of children with critical illnesses. After a medical setback, Hazel's doctors eventually allow the trip.

Hazel and Gus arrive in Amsterdam, where Gus confesses his love for Hazel during a romantic meal sponsored by Van Houten. The following afternoon, they go to Van Houten's house, but are shocked to discover he is a mean-spirited alcoholic. It is revealed that the emails from Van Houten had actually come from Lidewij, who arranged the meeting without Van Houten's knowledge. Van Houten taunts Hazel for seeking serious answers to a piece of fiction and belittles her medical condition. The teens leave distraught. Lidewij invites them sightseeing to compensate for their ruined experience and they visit the Anne Frank House, where they share their first kiss. The next day, Gus tells Hazel that his cancer has returned, spread throughout his body, and is now terminal.

After their return to Indianapolis, Gus' health continues to deteriorate. Gus invites Hazel and Isaac to his "pre-funeral". They both deliver eulogies, during which Hazel tells Gus she would not trade their short time together for anything. Gus dies eight days later. Van Houten attends his funeral, revealing that Gus had demanded he do so. Van Houten explains to Hazel that ''An Imperial Affliction'' was inspired by his own daughter, Anna, who died from leukemia at a young age. He gives Hazel a piece of paper, which she initially discards but later retrieves after Isaac reveals that the paper was a letter from Gus, who had asked Van Houten for assistance in writing a eulogy for Hazel.

Hazel reads the letter, in which Gus accepts his fate and professes his love for Hazel. As Hazel finishes the letter, she lies on her back in her lawn and looks up at the stars, smiling.

Cast

* Shailene Woodley as Hazel Grace Lancaster
** Lily Kenna as young Hazel
* Ansel Elgort as Augustus "Gus" Waters
* Nat Wolff as Isaac, Augustus' best friend
* Laura Dern as Frannie Lancaster, Hazel's mother
* Sam Trammell as Michael Lancaster, Hazel's father
* Willem Dafoe as Peter Van Houten
* Lotte Verbeek as Lidewij Vliegenthart, Van Houten's assistant
* Mike Birbiglia as Patrick, the support group leader
* Ana Dela Cruz as Dr. Maria
* Milica Govich as Mrs. Waters, Augustus's mother
* David Whalen as Mr. Waters, Augustus's father
* Emily Peachey as Monica
* Emily Bach as Monica's Mom
* Carole Weyers as the voice of Anne Frank

Production

Pre-production

On January 31, 2012, it was announced that Fox 2000, a division of 20th Century Fox, had optioned the rights to adapt John Green's novel '' The Fault in Our Stars'' for a feature film. Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen were due to produce the film with their production company, Temple Hill Entertainment. Stephen Chbosky, who directed '' The Perks of Being a Wallflower'' (also filmed in Pittsburgh), was in talks to direct the film but turned it down because of its similarity to ''Perks''. On February 19, 2013, Josh Boone was hired as director; Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber were hired to adapt the novel into a screenplaytheir second adaptation for Fox, following ''Rosaline''.

Casting

On March 19, 2013, ''Entertainment Weekly'' announced that Shailene Woodley would play Hazel Grace Lancaster. Director Josh Boone said, "We read close to 150 actresses for the role, and I saw about 50 of those. Within ten or fifteen seconds of Shailene's audition, I knew she was Hazel. She held up her script pages and just her eyes were peeking over them." On May 10, 2013, Ansel Elgort was cast as Hazel's love interest, Augustus Waters. On July 23, Laura Dern was cast as Hazel's mother Frannie Lancaster, and Nat Wolff as Isaac, Augustus' best friend. Wolff told HuffPost Live, "It's exciting, I feel really lucky. The fact that I get to work with these super talented peopleI mean, that's part of the reason why, I'm good in the movie, that's the reason." On August 14, Sam Trammell was cast as Hazel's father Michael Lancaster, and on August 28, author John Green announced that Mike Birbiglia would be playing Patrick. On September 6, he tweeted that Willem Dafoe would play Peter van Houten.

Prior to these announcements, author John Green had tweeted that he would be happy if Mae Whitman played Hazel, and in February 2013, there had been speculation that Shailene Woodley and Hailee Steinfeld were among those being considered for the lead role.

John Green filmed a cameo appearance; his scene was cut from the film but is included in the deleted scenes section of the film's DVD and Blu-ray releases. In the cut scene, Green plays the father of a young girl who asks about Hazel's cannula while at the airport. Green said, "They cut he scenebecause it was totally unnecessary to the movie-slash-I was terrible."

Filming

Principal photography began on August 26, 2013, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Film locations included Oakmont, Pennsylvania, UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, and the historic The Mansions on Fifth hotel. The church scenes were filmed at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mt. Lebanon. Filming in Pennsylvania continued until October 10; then the production moved to Amsterdam, where filming began on October 14. Filming was officially completed on October 16, 2013.

In Amsterdam, three days of filming took place. Woodley and Elgort were filmed on a canal-side public bench. On July 2, 2014, ''The Guardian'' reported that the bench had gone missing, and city officials said they did not know where it was. Amsterdam city spokesman, Stephan van der Hoek said, "It's a bit embarrassing, because we do keep good track of them, but it's gone all right". He promised to install a new bench within weeks. Just a week later, ''Entertainment Weekly'' said the Amsterdam film office had tweeted a photograph taken during the re-installation of the stolen bench; Amsterdam film commissioner Simon Brester said it was the same bench, not a replacement.

Filming in Pittsburgh included the interior scenes at the Anne Frank House, which was recreated on a soundstage at Pittsburgh Studios located in Churchill, Pennsylvania, in the east suburbs of Pittsburgh. Production designer Molly Hughes and art director Greg Weimerskirch built three different studio sets in Pittsburgh, one for each floor. Also, the Funky Bones art monument in Indianapolis was recreated in Pittsburgh with the help of the sculpture's creator, Dutch artist Joep van Lieshout.

Author John Green, though an Indianapolis native, was pleased with the selection of Pittsburgh for filming. He commented that

Pittsburgh has an amazing community of really talented film professionals that's been built up over the last 20 years. I've been blown away by their professionalism, their confidence, their dedication. There aren't a lot of cities like that. You kind of have to find the city that can be Indianapolis. And Pittsburgh, even though it has a lot of hills, it can be Indianapolis. We just have to find a couple of flat streets.

Music

Mike Mogis and Nathaniel Walcott of Bright Eyes scored the film. The full album track list was released on April 13, 2014, featuring songs from artists including: M83, Grouplove, Kodaline, Jake Bugg, Tom Odell, Birdy, Ed Sheeran and Charli XCX, who performed "Boom Clap", one of the main songs from the movie, which became an international success, due in part to its exposure in the film. The soundtrack was released by Atlantic Records on May 19 in the U.S., and on June 23 in the UK.

Release

''The Fault in Our Stars'' premiered to 300 guests at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City on June 2, 2014. At the premiere, Green said: "I didn't want to sell it, because Hollywood sucks at making unsentimental movies about illness." The film was released on June 6, 2014.

After the New York premiere, Evangeline Earl, a student, announced that Green's book, from which the film was adapted, had been inspired by her sister Esther Earl, who had also been an author. Esther had thyroid cancer and died in 2010. Evangeline said Esther had met Green at LeakyCon, a Harry Potter convention held in Boston in 2009. Green said, "I could never have written ''The Fault in Our Stars'' without knowing Esther. Every word on that book depends on her." Green said he used the word "okay" in the book and the film because Hazel and Augustus used it to express their love for each other.

Marketing

The first trailer was released on January 29, 2014. The trailer had over 3million views in less than 24 hours, and more than 15million views in its first seven days. A video clip was shown before the show at the 2014 MTV Movie Awards on April 13. An extended trailer was released on April 28, and Fox released more clips via YouTube as part of the film's pre-release promotion. On April 2, the studio announced the launch of a promotional tour program named Demand Our Stars. Green, Woodley, Elgort, and Wolff would visit the states that got most votes from fans re-blogging their states' map outlines. Four states won: the tour program started in Miami, Florida, on May 6; went to Cleveland, Ohio, on May 7; then went to Nashville, Tennessee, on May 8; and ended in Dallas, Texas, on May 9.

Home media

''The Fault in Our Stars'' was released on DVD and Blu-ray on September 16, 2014. ''The Fault in Our Stars: Little Infinities'' Blu-ray edition features the theatrical 126-minute and extended 133-minute versions of the film, a number of deleted scenes including the John Green cameo, and featurettes. The home video release grossed over $42.6million in total domestic video sales. It became available to stream on Disney+ on September 24, 2021.

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 81% based on 226 reviews, with an average rating of 6.90/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Wise, funny, and heartbreaking without resorting to exploitation, ''The Fault in Our Stars'' does right by its bestselling source material." Metacritic gave the film a score of 69 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Opening day audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Steven Rea of ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' gave the film a score of 3 out of 4; he said, "Woodley ... balances grace with gravity, wit with heart." A. O. Scott writing for ''The New York Times'' said, "The film sets out to make you weepnot just sniffle or choke up a little, but sob until your nose runs and your face turns blotchy. It succeeds." ''The Boston Globe's'' Ty Burr gave the film a rating of 2.5 out 4 and said, "If Elgort's Gus is glibly charming and ultimately affecting, ''The Fault in Our Stars'' belongs to Woodley, a performer who always seems to be backing warily into her own movies."

Quickflix's Simon Miraudo rated the film 3/5, and said, "''The Fault in Our Stars'' undeniably sets us up to knock us down." Richard Roeper of ''Chicago Sun-Times'' gave the film 4 stars. He said Woodley's performance as Hazel was "transcendent, pure and authentic", stating that, "she's that memorable." Scott Mendelson of ''Forbes'' magazine said the film is "exceptionally high-quality mainstream entertainment" and called it "a genuine work of art." Anna Smith of ''Empire'' said it was a, "touching romance and Shailene Woodley's best performance yet." Emma Dibdin of Digital Spy wrote "''The Fault in Our Stars'' is a sharp and emotionally-sophisticated weepie that imbues its teenage characters with rare intelligence, and tackles its bleak subject matter with acerbic wit and tenderness." Wilson Morales at ''BlackFilm.com'' praised Woodley and Elgort's performances, saying they "are so captivating and genuine in their performances, they manage to make this intensely poignant film very moving, romantic and highly entertaining."

''Time'' magazine's Richard Corliss wrote, "Hazel and Augustus will live in film lore because of the young actors who play them." Chris Vongar of ''Dallas Morning News'' gave the film a B+ as "the movie is witty and alive and only very occasionally maudlin." ''USA Today''s Claudia Puig called the film "well-written, well-acted, acerbic, funny and wisely observed", giving it 3.5 out of 4. Chris Nashawaty of ''Entertainment Weekly'' called the film a "funny, sweet, three-hankie tearjerker" and gave the B grade. Geoff Pevere of ''The Globe and Mail'' said, "While it may not conform to one's real-life expectations it certainly hews tightly to teen-flick conventions." Connie Ogle of ''The Miami Herald

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