The Fault in Our Stars (2014)

Adapted from the novel by John Green and directed by Josh Boone, this is a romance about two teens with terminal cancer. It’s more watchable than that description might suggest. 

Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort star as the main couple, Hazel and Gus, and both are fairly compelling. Since it’s very much from a teen perspective, the adults are oddly marginalised. Laura Dern just about has a role as Hazel’s mother, but Sam Trammell is a complete nothing of a character as her father.

Another interesting aspect is Hazel’s (dying) wish to seek out an obscure author whose work she admires (played by Willem Dafoe). When she eventually meets him, in Amsterdam, he’s a disappointingly unpleasant alcoholic. It’s a slightly odd plot – especially when he shows up again, and surprisingly hasn’t been humbled or redeemed by his encounters with the innocently adoring fan.

An unusual affair all round, but it certainly makes you think.

Wild (2014)

Harrowing true-life account of Cheryl Strayed’s 1,000-mile hike along the Pacific Crest Trail, adapted from her successful book. It’s fairly disturbing stuff, as the film chronicles her attempts to come to terms with bereavement, heroin addiction, abusive relationships and years of emotional pain. There’s a pessimistic message about men being predatory monsters. But then in Donald Trump’s America, maybe that’s the reality (see: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45958023). The scenery is stunning. Music plays a big part, too, and I like the way Reese Witherspoon in the lead role often sings the songs on the soundtrack so that you seem to hear them on multiple levels. Simon & Garfunkel’s “El Cóndor Pasa (If I Could)” acts as a recurring theme. There’s inevitably a sense of catharsis as Strayed survives multiple threats, completes the trail and looks forward to the rest of her life. Laura Dern is especially likeable as her positive-but-doomed mother and the flashback sections detailing various stages of their relationship make up the most powerful parts of the film. Somehow it wasn’t as moving as it might have been, although it’s difficult to pinpoint why. Perhaps it’s because Strayed doesn’t emerge as a particularly sympathetic character. But then why should she? It’s to the film’s credit that she’s not portrayed as some kind of saint.