The Fault In Our Stars (2014)

4.9/5

The film adaptation of John Green's The Fault In Our Stars is an extraordinarily faithful adaptation. Having read the book just months prior to seeing the movie, I am impressed by how much the characters and actions on screen matched my own vision for them. It delivers all the melodramatic heartbreak and sentimental tearjerking you would expect from a book about two kids with cancer who fall in love. Neither Hazel (Woodley) nor Gus (Elgort) look particularly Hollywood-attractive, but their on-screen chemistry is undeniable. However, despite how perfect they are for each other, fate conspires to pull them apart. The story is more than a little bit emotionally manipulative, but it is tragically sweet and hits all the right notes. Everything just feels so ... lovely and tender.

While overly sensational and extravagantly "young adult," the story is attempting at something more than simply pulling at the heartstrings of America's youth. It touches on a multitude of topics, but the most impenetrable one to me revolves around literature, the creation of stories, and the way we project our own qualities on others. Willem Dafoe plays Van Houten, the author of Hazel's favorite book. His contribution to the story is both confusing and infuriating, but his unclear motivations and his abrupt exit are some of the most profound aspects to the story. His presence is both unusual and unsettling and makes me like the movie all that much more.

This movie is not for everyone--in fact, it may feel a bit childish or immature to some--but for those who fall under its spell, it is spectacular.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2582846/

Admission (2013)

3/5

Admission is essentially a Tina Fey vehicle, which automatically makes it immensely entertaining. The perpetually-fantastic Tina Fey plays a Princeton admissions officer named Portia, who finds love in an alternative school's guidance counselor named John (played by the always-lovable Paul Rudd). John tells Portia some revelatory news: one of his students may be Portia's son, whom she gave up for adoption years earlier. On her new-found journey as a parent, she learns life lessons about relationships (both romantic and maternal) in hilarious fashion before the film finally ends in a sad but hopeful spirit.

The movie is fairly simple and mindless. The throwaway story does a fair job at serving up jokes, but any attempts to be meaningful and melodramatic fall flat. Luckily, they are easy to ignore. The characters are bland and forgettable, but the actors still manage to charm with their wry wit and precise comedic timing. This movie isn't great by any stretch of the imagination, but it's appealing enough to satisfy on a lazy weekend afternoon.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1814621/