If you cry while reading a book, chances are you’ll sob while watching the adaptation of that book, right?
I assumed this would be the case for The Fault in Our Stars, so I came to Tuesday night’s D.C. screening of the film armed with a pack of tissues. And a pen and notebook.
For science?
I set out to record the number of times I legitimately shed tears while watching the movie, with the hopes that I could help others mentally prepare for the film. (Or, because it’s funny to tally your own tears.)
Just to give you an idea of what kind of movie-cryer I am: I bawled through Brokeback Mountain, I had one traveling tear for The Notebook and I shed zero tears during a recent viewing of Titanic.
So sweet you could just cry, right? (20th Century Fox)
After I viewed the 125-minute film, my notebook said:
Twice I had watery eyes and a lump of sadness in my throat, but dry cheeks.
Six times I straight-up cried and required tissues to clean up the mess.
Once I had a sob session that lasted approximately 25 minutes of the movie. (Yes, the last 25 minutes.) I suppose I can really only count that as one long, snot-filled cry. I don’t think I’ve ever cried that hard in a theater before. In fact, I know I’ve never cried that hard in a theater before.
How cute is Augustus? Cute enough to make you cry. A lot. (20th Century Fox)
The results:
If we count the almost-cries as half-cries, that’s a total of…
7 cries + one epic 25-minute sob session= Bring more than 1 pack of tissues.
The movie’s worth the tears.
Sometimes, you cry because you’re happy. (20th Century Fox)
A quick note about the movie’s ending while I have your attention:
At a BookCon panel this weekend, TFIOS author John Green said that the movie’s screenwriters did a better job writing the story’s ending than he did. He wasn’t wrong.