The Fault in Our Stars

Two teenage cancer patients cross paths in a support group and forge a bond that challenges their assumptions about illness and love. Hazel Grace Lancaster, who carries the label of a terminal patient, meets Augustus Waters, a beamingly confident survivor who sees life as something to be seized. They share a sharp wit and a shared love of a certain novel, and their unlikely romance becomes the center of their worlds. As Hazel and Augustus navigate hope and fear, they confront what it means to live with grace when time feels finite, leaning on humor, honesty, and each other. They discover humor and vulnerability in equal measure, and their relationship becomes a lens to view courage and fear alike.

Directed by Josh Boone, the film adapts John Green's bestselling novel with a screenplay by Scott Neustadter and Michael H Weber. It premiered in 2014 and was released by 20th Century Fox, with an emphasis on intimate character work that fans appreciated.

With a modest start, the drama earned 307,166,834 dollars worldwide on a lean budget of 14,000,000, showcasing strong return on investment and broad appeal across audiences seeking heartfelt romance tempered by real world stakes. Its global success underscored the appeal.

The film resonated beyond romance fans, sparking conversations about illness and adolescence on screens large and small. It helped broaden interest in the source book, generating discussion about how movies portray sickness with empathy, humor, and realism, and it inspired school and library programs around teen health in classrooms too.

Critics broadly praised the performances of Woodley and Elgort and their chemistry, noting the film balances light touches with heavy subject matter. The story centers on themes of mortality, friendship, and the ways love shapes how people cope with grief, while never shying away from harsh realities for future generations.