Performances are likable and the casting’s on the money: Elgort (Woodley’s brother in Divergent) has a flirtatious sparkle while not an obvious hunk, while Woodley maintains the fresh-faced girl-next-door look that should win over the young target market. Hazel’s parents’ strained faces speak volumes as do Gus’ cavalier jokes that help him avoid the truth. Like the (bestselling) source novel by John Green, The Fault In Our Stars explores characters as much by what they don’t say as what they do. Laura Dern puts in a sensitive performance as the kindly, smiling mother fighting back the tears, torn between indulging her daughter and protecting her. While 16 year-old Hazel narrates, this also takes a look at the effect her condition has on her family. It’s also funny: Gus and Hazel indulge in gallows humour rather than self-pity, though their resilience doesn’t stretch to unlikely levels. That’s just one of the refreshing spots of table-turning in what could have been a formulaic Hollywood tear-jerker. But this isn’t all about a dying girl popping her cherry: it’s actually love interest Gus (Ansel Elgort) who’s the virgin here.

A teen cancer drama like a rite of passage for a former child actress these days: Dakota Fanning did it in Now Is Good now Shailene Woodley stars as a cancer patient with a similar desire to live life to the full while she can.

The fault in our stars movie