A Mom's Review of The Fault in Our Stars
Let me first say, there are many reviews out there – Christian and Non – but, as parents we should take the opportunity to see it ourselves first if we have any hesitation.
It is a beautiful story with beautiful characters and leaves every teenage girl at times wishing to meet a “Gus” of their own. He’s positively a charmer.
Are there bad words? Yes.
Nothing that I’m sure they haven’t heard in school or even at church.
Do I hate bad words in movies? Yes. I think good movies can be made without them and Hollywood says otherwise.
There is also a scene in the beginning that we are invited into a Support Group for those with a terminal illness at a church with Hazel Grace; where her and Gus meet. There is a little bit of mockery of “my Jesus” in it and Hollywood felt it necessary to include it. But I think it’s the sex scene where some of us parents are a little nervous.
In my opinion there are two scenes to watch out for. The first is with Gus’s friend "grouping" his girlfriend’s boob in the parking lot of the church after support group with others watching. The second is the one that I think is raising so many eyebrows to parents as to - is this movie appropriate or not?
Hazel and Gus are in Amsterdam with Hazel’s mother. There is one night where we find them back in Gus’s hotel room, they are at that point where Hollywood has now made us “feel” how crazy in love they are, sad that she has cancer and realizing the beauty of this relationship is not forever which to express their love they head for the bed.
His shirt is unbuttoned by Hazel. Her shirt is pulled off with help from Gus. We now have a shirtless 18-year-old with a topless 16-year-old. She removes her bra, you see a side of her exposed breast and then Hollywood moves us to the next shot.
If you ever watched the movie Pretty Woman and remember the scene where she kisses him on the lips, they have sex and then we see their bare legs (up to the thigh) in bed panning us up to a blanket covering their naked body parts and his arm wrapped around her tightly. Yep, that’s the same scene here.
Some reviews say we don’t know if they actually had sex. Seriously??
We must have stupid written on our foreheads.
Here is my opinion, which carries no weight; I think processing this movie with a 15 ½ year old would be ok. Download the movie with them, go to dinner, and talk about it. What did they think about some of the scenes? How did they feel about Hazel and Gus’ relationship? Then if you are like us and believe in honoring the marriage bed and waiting, does loving someone that gets sick make it ok to have sex? It raises questions and we as parents have an opportunity to discuss good vs. evil that the world is pushing on our young teenagers.
Its movies like these that take the innocence out of our kids. Forces us as parents to hurry up and raise our teenagers so that they can make adult decisions.
My three teenagers that are under 15 ½ are just too young. The one that will be 16, has no interest. "Mom, it's a chick flick!"
This movie is deep.
Deep in emotions.
It also shows some very big parenting mishaps from Hazel’s mom, in my opinion. This is what we are choosing for our family.
Now, we may rent it when it comes out on Redbox, and now that we have seen it, can fast forward through the crap that Hollywood wants our young teenagers to see with a PG-13 rating which we need to have a PG-15 rating. So much maturity happens between 13 and 15 and 15 and 17. Ok, I’ll stop.
I’ve got one chance to parent these kids and I’m going to do my best to get it right!
Again, this is only my opinion for my family.
Yes, I can continue discussing how we have to guard what our children have to see, that there is a devil out there wanting to steal, kill and destroy our kids, or that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. But, I felt this was more about the knowledge we need to be better prepared for this movie as parents than using verses to shed light on it.
I would love to continue the conversation…please comment below. I would love to hear your thoughts!
