Fate is a rotten traitor

For years now, 16-year-old Hazel Grace (Shailene Woodley) has suffered from thyroid cancer that has metastasized to her lungs. Although a new drug has so far spared her from dying far too soon, Hazel has seemingly come to terms with the fact that she will not live a normal and long life. Nevertheless, she complies with her parents' (Laura Dern, Sam Trammell) wishes and attends a support group for teenage cancer patients. There she meets Gus (Ansel Elgort), who had to have a leg amputated due to bone cancer. The very self-confident and fun-loving nature of the boy impresses Grace and quickly develops between the two a close friendship that could easily become love. But Grace doesn't want that to happen, because she thinks she's a ticking time bomb that will cause everyone around her terrible pain if it goes off. Her family can't protect her from it, but Gus can. But then he grants her greatest wish and travels with her to Amsterdam to meet author Peter Van Houten (Willem Dafoe), the writer of her favorite book. But the trip turns out very differently than planned and will permanently change the lives and love of the two young people.

With his novel Fate is a Lousy Traitor, US author John Green has made it to the top of the international bestseller lists in no time and has been awarded the German Youth Literature Prize, among other prizes. Even before the book was published, Hollywood approached Green about the rights for a film adaptation. But at first the author hesitated. He wanted his book to be in good hands - and that was the case when he met producer Wyck Godfrey. For Godfrey, it was clear that the film should do justice to the characters in the book and that the adaptation should not be a drippy schmaltzette about cancer any more than the book was. It was directed by Josh Boone, who has already shown a sensitive knack for unusual young people's love stories with his indie comedy Love Stories.

The great strength of Green's book is that while the story is primarily aimed at teen readers, older readers are also completely swept away and moved. It is a universally beautiful book that really knows no age limit. That's only partly the case with Boone's film. Here, the youthful target group is addressed much more clearly, which is noticeable both on the basis of the two main actors, who were last seen together as siblings in Divergent - The Destiny, as well as the soundtrack with songs by Birdy and Ed Sheeran, among others. And this target group will be perfectly served by this very successful film adaptation then guaranteed. Here you can pine and dream without restraint, laugh a little but also sob bitterly. The film knows perfectly how to serve the whole range of emotions. For adult viewers, this may seem a bit overdone and, especially in the case of the scene set in the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, a bit alienating. And yet the whole thing just works very, very well. Because as cheesy as the one or other scene may seem, you have to be made of stone not to have shed a few tears by the end.

In the first half of the film, the main characters still seem a little over-stylized, their language at times almost a little precocious. Here you get the sense that young people, even when forced by illness to grow up in some ways, would never talk like this. However, the sympathetic and very engaging acting of Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort quickly makes up for this weakness. At the latest in the last third this impression is dispelled anyway, because then especially the way Gus deals with his fate seems very honest and pleasantly unadorned. And that's exactly what allows the story to unfold its full emotional power in the film version. And as in the book, this is on the one hand very sad, but on the other hand also wonderfully life-affirming and absolutely moving.

So overall, Fate is a Lousy Traitor is an absolutely successful film adaptation of the bestseller, which does justice to the book template in almost every respect and which primarily - but just not exclusively - offers its youthful target audience one of the most beautiful love stories of recent years. Admittedly, here and there the whole thing is cheesy, clichéd and too thick. But that doesn't change the fact that the movie as a whole is just quite wonderful. And for that there is a clear: Absolutely worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp