Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ On Disney+, The Teen Weepie Based On John Green’s Best-Selling Novel

The teen weepie has been an important sub-genre for some time now, and a lot of its success – while easily traced back to A Walk to Remember – can also be attributed to The Fault in Our Stars, the teen cancer movie based on John Green’s best-selling novel of the same name. There’s something sort of comforting in knowing a movie is almost designed to make you cry, and that’s exactly what these teen weepies set out to do. Lucky for all of us crybabies, The Fault in Our Stars is now available to stream on Disney+. 

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Teenager Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) has cancer. What began as thyroid cancer when she was younger has now spread to her lungs, and she’s not quite sure how long she has to live. Hazel’s mother Frannie (Laura Dern) urges Hazel to attend a support group, believing she is depressed, and Hazel reluctantly attends. While she initially rolls her eyes through much of it, things change quickly when she meets Augustus “Gus” Waters (Ansel Elgort), an 18-year-old who lost a leg to bone cancer and tells the group he’s in remission. The two soon begin spending all their time together, sharing books (Hazel’s favorite, An Imperial Affliction, brings the two closer) and bonding over experiences both shared and otherwise.

After Gus reaches out to Peter Van Houten, the author of An Imperial Affliction, the two set out on a trip to Amsterdam to meet the reclusive author and find out why his book ends so abruptly. The trip might not go the way either of them anticipated, but it becomes the adventure of a lifetime, and the love between the two only continues to blossom. With both their fates uncertain, however, how long can this love last?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The Fault in Our Stars is a tentpole of the teen (and a slightly older) weepie genre, which also includes titles like A Walk to Remember, Five Feet Apart, Me Before You, and Me Earl and The Dying Girl.

Performance Worth Watching: Laura Dern reminds us all why she’s such an icon with her performance in The Fault in Our Stars, taking what could have been a weepy mother role and turning it into one of the film’s greatest strengths. As Hazel’s mom Frannie, Dern emanates warmth and pain all at once, showing us both a concerned and loving mother and a broken person, someone who might fall apart at any moment (but won’t for her daughter’s sake). The Fault in Our Stars is full of strong performances, but Dern delivers one that stays with you long after the credits have rolled.

Memorable Dialogue: There’s a lot of big, soapy dialogue that The Fault in Our Stars is well-known for, but I’ll admit that Woodley’s delivery of “yeah, sometimes people don’t understand the promises that they’re making when they make them,” stuck with me.

Sex and Skin: There’s a sweet, romantic love scene between our two young leads, but it’s all pretty tame.

Our Take: When The Fault in Our Stars hit theaters in 2014, it was impossible to venture to any teen corner of the internet without seeing “I fell in love the way you fall asleep. Slowly, then all at once,” or some other quote from the film or book. Despite some of the flick’s cheesier inclinations, it surprisingly holds up, largely in part to performances from Shailene Woodley and Laura Dern. It’s not difficult to see why Woodley quickly became one of our most in-demand actresses; she plays Hazel with an ease rarely seen in young performers, and it’s what makes The Fault in Our Stars work as well as it does. 

Even when it gets soapy, The Fault in Our Stars manages to toe the line between melodramatic and genuinely moving, with a little bit of wicked humor thrown in for good measure. It’s the platonic ideal of a teen weepie, armed with dreamy young leads with electric chemistry and a gutting story to tell. It’s undeniably charming, no matter how hard you may try to resist; The Fault in Our Stars isn’t as blatantly emotionally manipulative as a lot of its genre companions, instead choosing to pursue what feels like a more authentic path. Even when things feel implausible, it all feels grounded, heartfelt and sincere till the very end. Whether you need a good cry or to be reminded of the power of young love, The Fault in Our Stars is bound to fit the bill. 

Our Call: STREAM IT. Anchored by a breathtaking performance from Shailene Woodley, The Fault in Our Stars remains a top-notch YA adaptation bound to elicit tears from even the coldest hearted viewers.

Jade Budowski is a freelance writer with a knack for ruining punchlines, hogging the mic at karaoke, and thirst-tweeting. Follow her on Twitter: @jadebudowski.

Watch The Fault in Our Stars on Disney Plus