The Fault in Our Stars Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

The Fault in Our Stars Blu-ray Movie Review

Love means never having to say you're dying from terminal cancer.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 17, 2014

Burgeoning romance doomed by fatal illness has been a cinematic trope since celluloid first danced in front of an illuminating lamp. We may be well into the HD video age now, but scrappy lovers eking out some semblance of happiness even as their imminent mortality threatens their every waking moment has lost none of its handkerchief moistening appeal, at least if The Fault in Our Stars is any indication. Will the buzz about Shailene Woodley’s performance continue long enough to net her an Academy Award nomination, where she’ll follow in the august footsteps of such “not quite dead yet” actresses as Greta Garbo (Camille) or Ali MacGraw (Love Story)? While at least some of The Fault in Our Stars will strike curmudgeons as hopelessly pretentious, there’s no denying the emotional pull of watching a slightly snarky teenager overcome her innate reserve to reach out and touch another cancer survivor, with true love blossoming despite the dearth of chances for an honest to goodness happily ever after. Based on a Number 1 bestselling book by YouTube vlogging sensation John Green, The Fault in Our Stars focuses on the sweet relationship between Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) and Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort), two teens afflicted with the Big C who meet each other at a support group. While both seem to look askance at the silliness of some aspects of the support group itself, they find in each other a rare bond, one which helps them to cope with their diseases. The film follows several "doomed romance" tropes, but it does so winningly most of the way, highlighted by two standout performances by the young stars.

Via some trenchant voiceover narration, Hazel lets us in on the fact that this is not going to be a typical tale of good triumphing over evil, or perhaps more appropriately, health triumphing over illness. And yet, The Fault in Our Stars is almost defiantly traditional, at least within the confines of this strange little subgenre of romantic fiction. Like many heroines apparently dying from terminal diseases, Hazel is smart, funny, beautiful and (an absolute prerequisite) spunky. Also like many heroines in this niche, she manages to literally bump into an incredibly cool, good looking, athletic, smart, funny and (an absolute prerequisite) charming young man named Augustus Waters. Augustus? Really? Teenage female hearts may be fluttering, but old fuddy duddies (let alone old male fuddy duddies) may be rolling their eyes.

Hazel is in a very real sense a 21st century take on Jenny from Love Story, minus perhaps the penchant for swearing like a sailor. While there’s no class subtext here like there was in Erich Segal’s book, Hazel is, like her progenitor, a powerful young woman who does not suffer fools gladly and whose verbal acuity tends to help her keep people at a distance. The Fault in Our Stars quite nicely details Gus’ (thankfully he uses a nickname) ability to cut through Hazel’s BS and get to the heart of the matter.

That heart turns out to be tied into an enigmatic book about a young cancer victim which has become an obsession with Hazel, and which Hazel foists on Gus. Gus manages to make contact with the reclusive author (think J.R. Salinger, only less accessible), who it turns out is living in Amsterdam. Because Gus is everything true and noble in young adult romantic fiction, he is able to finagle a trip to Amsterdam so that he and Hazel can meet Peter Van Houten (Willem Dafoe).

That gives The Fault in Our Stars a certain “quest” aspect, though what really moves this picture (and in turn is most moving about it), are the intimate conversations between Hazel and Gus. These two characters are forced to confront death, and while Hazel’s seeming bravado and nihilism perhaps help her to maintain a facade of steeliness, it’s more than apparent how her relationship with Gus causes her to reevaluate her feelings. Without spoiling one of the central conceits of the film (for the two or three of you who don’t already know), Hazel’s predicament turns out to be almost a sidebar to other tragedy. Like I said, have your Kleenex ready.

Performances here are superb from top to bottom. While Woodley has come in for the lion's share of critical accolades, for my money it's Elgort who repeatedly walks away with individual scenes. He makes Gus a living, breathing character, something that's probably harder than it looks since Green has written a hero who is frankly simply too good to be true.

The Fault in Our Stars is frankly better than it really has any right to be. This is a film that wears its beating, bleeding heart quite proudly on its cinematic sleeve, and both Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (adapting Green's novel) and director Josh Boone go for the emotional jugular from the first moment, rarely letting go for the next two hours-plus. There’s no real emotional roller coaster ride here, since this is pretty much a one way ticket down into depressive depths, but the remarkable thing about the film is how it actually ends up celebrating resilience in the face of unimaginable trauma. It may not be a happy ending, but it’s probably the best that can be hoped for considering the magnitude of the problem.

The Fault in Our Stars Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Fault in Our Stars is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Shot digitally utilizing the Arri Alexa, this high definition presentation is buoyed by the nice range of tones and lighting that the Alexa can capture. Everything from an insanely brightly lit doctor's office to the recurring motif of a field of nighttime stars offers excellent clarity and definition. Colors are very nicely saturated and accurate looking, and some of the location photography (especially the snippets in Amsterdam) offer some really appealing scenery. Close-ups reveal astounding fine detail, as can be seen in a couple of the screenshots accompanying this review. One minor cause of concern is somewhat variable contrast, where, for instance, really brightly lit scenes have the tendency to look a bit milky and even get close to blooming territory. Boone offers a few visual gimmicks along the way in terms of displaying things like emails and texts. The Fault in Our Stars has no artifacting issues of note and fans should be very well pleased with this presentation.

The Fault in Our Stars Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Fault in Our Stars' lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 offers substantial surround activity courtesy of its expected ubiquitous use of source cues, including everything from indie rock to classical, as well as some well placed ambient environmental effects, especially in the Amsterdam sequence. Hazel's narration is delivered very cleanly and clearly, as is dialogue. The mix is well prioritized, sports excellent fidelity, and suffers from no problems of any kind.

The Fault in Our Stars Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Josh Boone and John Green. Boone and Green are perhaps a bit too self-congratulatory for my personal tastes, but they do dole out credit to a lot of people here, while keeping things resolutely conversational.


• Deleted Scenes with Optional Audio Commentary by Josh Boone and John Green (1080p; 7:44)


• The Stars Align (1080p; 8:21) contains some interesting interview segments with John Green.


• Promotional Featurettes include:

  The Scribe on Set (1080p; 4:10) has some fun footage of Green interacting with the stars.

  Our Little Infinity (1080p; 1:03) is a brief EPK with interviews.

  The Music Behind Our Stars (1080p; 3:11) focuses on the film's score.

• Gallery (1080p; 2:03 in auto advance mode)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:19)


• Theatrical (1080p; 2:05:54) and Extended (1080p; 2:12:53) Versions of the Film. The Extended Version features a pretty useless 17 second intro by Green and Boone where they urge us to sit back, relax and enjoy the show. Well, all righty, then.

The Fault in Our Stars Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Is The Fault in Our Stars almost infuriatingly manipulative? Yes. Does that mean it's not effective? No. People going into this kind of film usually know what they're in for, and that includes a welling of tears and probably the unwanted accretion of mucus, but that's part of the package, isn't it? Even those with hearts made of stone will probably experience at least a minor lump in the throat as Hazel and Gus wend their way toward an expectedly bittersweet conclusion. Just have a box of Kleenex handy and everything will be a lot easier to handle. Technical merits here are strong, and The Fault in Our Stars comes Highly recommended.