10 Reasons The Fault In Our Stars Is The Best Book-Film Adaptation In Years

7. The Casting Is Spot-On

It would be difficult to pick two actors as perfect for the romantic leads in The Fault In Our Stars as Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort. Woodley, fresh from The Descendants and young adult franchise opener Divergent, is the perfect mix of sassy and adorable as Hazel Grace Lancaster. Her performance is hilarious, heart-wrenching and perfectly poised. The character is never a grief-stricken caricature or the archetypal cynical teenager who just knows better than everyone around her. She's nuanced, flawed and almost exactly what you'd expect from a young person struggling to live with a disease that she knows will eventually kill her. Elgort is equally brilliant, all swagger on the surface but always showing just a hint of the issues raging within him. He's far from the clichéd attractive male lead that usually stars in young adult adaptations. However, Willem Dafoe absolutely steals the show as author Peter Van Houten. He is perfect as a writer who believes himself to be a misunderstood genius who cannot be satisfied with the appreciation of only a few people. It's a performance that could easily have become a hammy caricature, but really works in Dafoe's hands.