Why The Fault In Our Stars Matters as a Movie

This weekend, my wife took me out for Father's Day. She knows one of my all-time favorite things to do is go to the movies. But, as we were sitting in the parking lot, I could not decide between the Fault in Our Stars and The Edge of Tomorrow. Both had been so well reviewed, I thought I would enjoy either one. However, my wife then pointed out two teenage girls walking up to get their tickets with a box of tissues in hand. That made my decision a lot easier. Edge of Tomorrow it was. I just did not think I could handle the sobbing and "aaaaaawwwwweeee's" of teenage girls for my Father's Day movie. But when we arrived at the screen for our local theatre, I was devastated by how incredible small of a screen they had Edge of Tomorrow playing on. If I'm going to pay $12 to see an all-out scifi action movie, I want to see it on the big screen. For some reason seeing a little love story on a small screen seems less offensive. So we movie hopped on over to The Fault in Our Stars where a grand total of 10 people were in our audience.

Here is what I thought of the movie:  Even though I did not personally feel like it was a representation of me up on the screen, and thus I had a hard time liking the characters as much as I wanted too, I did think they were a pretty good representation of what it would be like to fall in love under such stressful conditions. I also thought it was a great representation of what it would be like to be a parent in this situation. So hard. I also did really like some of the deep thoughts of the movie. I don't think I will remember them forever or anything, but I thought there were some original and touching ideas on the topic of love to be found.

So, why does the Fault in Our Stars matter? One thing the movie does really well is make you feel. And, that is important. Even though I didn't love love love the movie, I did get teary eyed several times in the film. You'd have to be a cold hearted brick not to. It also reminded me of those great memories of falling in love and how innocent and passionate and whirl windy it is. And, finally, it made me think about how precious our time really is with the ones we love, both our significant other and our children. We need more movies like this. Because after all.  Aren't the movies that make us feel, really the ones that matter?