Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Billy Wonka (A) on June 08, 2014 at 15:37:51

Shailene Woodley is the teen-aged girl equivalent of Danny Trejo--she says yes to all scripts thrown her way in case each is the last. Granted, she is thrown decent budget, first-run vehicles that require her "every girl" looks and personality. She is currently the ruling princess of being "ordinary" just like 90% of the teen population which soaks up her films.

Hazel drags around an o2 bottle as a result of her unending bout of cancer. She tries to do the best she can and attends a support group (she hates) to make her parents happy. One day she meets Gus whom she assumes is just keeping one of the regular members happy. Gus chats her up and reveals he has lost a leg to cancer and that they have a lot in common. Thus begins a slowly evolving love affair that drags them to Amsterdam to meet an inspiring author of her favorite "cancer book". Dafoe turns out to be a snide, vicious, drunk stain of a man who completely disillusions
both. Once they come home things begin to unravel.

Woodley can do no wrong inside the scripts written for her. She projects an earthy honesty that draws viewers in. Ansel Elgort (Gus) is near pitch perfect as the teen who will not be kept down. He is confident, outgoing, and filled with a sense of humor a cancer patient needs. All the supporting actors do their thing and Laura Dern does pretty much a cardboard pop-up of a loving mom. Lotte Verbeek of "The (boring) Borgias" plays Dafoe's apologetic companion.

This is the kind of film that can go both teen and family. I saw it early in the day and there were more adults there than anyone--ahh, we are suckers for touching stories.

This is the kind of thing made for families even if gathered around a warm, toasty Blu Ray.