The Fault In Our Stars – 3

A young adult movie not recommended for anyone over 14 or under 12. Shailene Woodley is commendable as a teenage cancer sufferer, but her love interest is pretty insufferable and Sam Trammell as her father turns in the worst acting performance of the year. Laura Dern is good, as usual, although it’s hard to reconcile her scattery emotions with her daughter’s calm. Then again, there is hardly a scene that rings with any truth, capped by Hazel’s lugging her respirator up a ladder in the Anne Frank house. And I won’t even get into whatever Willem Dafoe is doing at Gus’s funeral. This all must have worked better in the book. If you’re 13.