Like most people recently I have seen the very popular film named The Fault In Our Stars, also like a lot of people I read the amazingly written and heart breaking book by John Green. With many films that have been made from books, there is always things that they miss out. Sometimes it's only small things that don't really matter and sometimes it is big things that matter to the story and/or the reader.
First thing first I loved the film it was amazing, brilliant, heart warming and heart breaking. I cried and cried. All I wanted to do was hug Hazel Grace and bring back the love of her life. Yes the book was even more emotional but unlike the film when I wanted to cry, I could put the book down step back and breath but you can't do that in the cinema it happens all at once and hits you right in the face. One thing that didn't help was the couple violently kissing next to me...
The Swing Set.
In the book, there is a whole bit where Hazel is crying and rings Gus a tells him that she is staring at the swing set and its upsetting her because she can't use it and it's just sitting there. He rushes round and together out a very cleverly word advert up for someone to take the swing set. In the film you see Grace ringing Gus not as sad as she was in the book and then it's the next scene. By the end of the film after Augustus passes away her and Isaac are sitting in her garden next to where the swing set was but it was gone. There was no explanation to why the swing set was gone and to people who haven't read the book, they will never understand the true value of the swing set.
UPDATE: This scene was filmed and is included in the DVD extended version.
Isaac
Obviously, this film is made to mainly focus on the romance between Gus and Hazel but this results in less Isaac. You don't get to see the true friendship between Isaac and Augustus, you just see what happens when Hazel is there. Also, you don't get to see him truly struggle with his new blindness and the kindness of his friendship. His best friend had just died and yet he is trying to be strong, it focuses on Hazel's sadness but doesn't show the pain Isaac has to go through too.
Peter Van Houten
Everyone who has seen the film and read the book knows that this guy is a real douche pants but his true douchiness was not brought out very well in the film. Yes, the actor was good and there is no fault to him or his acting but to the script. In my opinion, his dialect and actions were not as mean as they were in the book to make us really hate him. I don't know if they had to tone it down because the film is a 12A or they thought it wasn't appropriate but I felt he should have been meaner.
A film if never going to be perfect if you've also read the book, but for what it is worth, this film did pretty well.
Jonna x