We all knew before sitting down for this movie that it was going to be a tear-jerker.
Because of that I knew that I wanted to be in the right mood for it, even though it started showing up on HBO a couple of weeks ago. Ironically, it’s kind of one of those things that you’ll probably never be really ready for on all levels – needless to say, it’s a movie that makes you do a lot of thinking as it refuses to pull any punches in a way that only a tragic love story is truly capable of…
I think I liked this movie because for 126 minutes it forces you to confront the realities that someone with a terminal disease faces every day, and in a weird way I kind of admired its candor. There’s a scene in the second half where Hazel is fighting with her Mom and corrects her from saying, “If you die…” to “When I die…” that just leaves your jaw dropping with acceptance that could only truly be served with a firm clubbing to the head.
We all know that Hazel is going to die, but nobody more than she does.
Spoiler – She doesn’t even die in the course of the movie, but we know that it’s going to happen eventually because we’ve watched her suffering unfold in ways that make us all wish we could take some of that burden from her…
Death is a topic that still terrifies me to personally think and talk about, but that doesn’t prevent it from inching closer and closer to me and everyone I’ve ever cared about every single day. The only thing that we can do is make the best of the time we have while we’re here, and that’s why this movie and book were so beautiful because it’s a tale of young love and hardship and fully appreciating a matter of months when truth be told they really deserved a lifetime together to love and to hold each other.
But sometimes life doesn’t always happen that way, and it’s not fair, and it’s crushing even as you see it coming from a mile away. This story was a celebration of both love and of heartbreak, and it’s really of no surprise after watching it why John Green is such a brilliant guy.
“You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world…but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices.”