2014 cancer movie
Rating; 14/20 (Jen: 16/20; Emma: 16/20; Abbey: 14/20)
Plot: A couple kids with cancer fall in love.
I had no trouble connecting with this movie because just like the young characters in one key scene, I too become sexually aroused whenever I think about Anne Frank.
This movie isn't without its problems, and I liked the book better even though it had the same problems. The young leads were fine, but these characters are a little too sure of themselves, like protagonists in a Chuck Palahniuk novel. There's a nice rapport between Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort (he should get that changed), so I can almost understand why these two are going to be in every movie released from now on. Willem Dafoe is terrific as a reclusive and bitter author. He plays that character exactly like he should have been played, and the taste you get of that character with that performance almost makes you want a separate movie just about that guy. And faithful readers already know my feelings about Mike Birbiglia who gets a small role here as a group counselor. Things get overly sentimental here. It's like everybody involved with the production wanted to do everything possible to make the audience cry, but I wasn't falling for it. If I was a teenage girl, I think I would have liked this a lot more, but I had the teenage girl in me exorcised from me many years ago. There's a lovely story nearly submerged beneath all the muck, the kind of glossy gloom you could almost choke on, and the likable characters help keep you involved. Still, this is a look at cancer and young love that only Hollywood can deliver, and that scene in the Anne Frank house makes me laugh just thinking about it.
Speaking of Anne Frank and teenage hormones, how much of a fight do you think there was about the sex scene prelude in this? After the Anne Frank shenanigans, they should have just handled it with a train like Hitchcock would have.
1 comment:
Kelly and I just watched this, and I agree with everything you wrote. It has many good moments, and the leads are charismatic, but most of it is so precious and manipulative that it undercuts a lot of its worthy though clichéd message. I actually stopped the movie during the Anne Frank scene and ranted about how ridiculous it was that the people reacted that way. Unless they had been stalking this couple to know the backstory, their reaction would have been irritation at the extremely inappropriate teen behavior in a hallowed place.
The movie seemed to drag at times waiting for the inevitable emotional crescendo, and little of it was very believable, but there was so much tear-jerking going on that some of it had an effect. Because of its excesses I can only give this a 13, but it will be fairly memorable for the good as well as the bad.
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