The Fault in Our Stars extended thoughts

Here, you'll find some extended thoughts on the adaptation of The Fault in Our Stars. Spoilers will abound.

In the Peter Van Houten scene, several lines of dialogue are cut. The explanation of why he's blaring Swedish hip-hop is missing, as is the rant about the Dutch Tulip Man. These losses are especially unfortunate, but they're not the only ones. The V for Vendetta scene is entirely absent. The letter after the sex scene tragically never happens. Hazel's attempt to find Augustus' attempted sequel is nowhere to be seen. There are others as well, but of course you can't expect every scene in a novel to be in a two hour film adaptation. That said, it's still a bit of a loss, especially as absolutely nothing was added.

I interpreted the tone of Isaac's post-breakup breakdown to be a lot less light-hearted than it was in the film. The focus was clearly on Hazel and Augustus, though to be fair they are the main characters. Unlike in the book, though, Isaac's breakup stress didn't have much emotional effect on me, so the first major emotional twist wasn't until Hazel was hospitalized. Up until that point, the emotion of melancholy was severely downplayed, which contributed to the "quirky" feeling that the film gave off.

Really, the whole idea of cancer being really bad is downplayed in the first part. Hazel's big speech about being a side effect? Not included. The seriousness of having cancer isn't particularly acknowledged until Hazel's round in the hospital, and that is detrimental to the first act. However, after that, the gravity of having cancer is illuminated more.

The adaptation of the scene where Gus confesses to Hazel about his cancer spreading is where I started to choke up, and the eulogy scene is especially powerful. After the turning point of the third act, the soundtrack becomes much more effective without changing much. Instead of seeming a bit cheesy, it becomes a reminder of what was before, and how it's lost. The happy moments are tinted with melancholy because of the inevitability of Gus' death. It's really powerful.