Reactions visible to anyoneReactions visible to owner’s Close FriendsReactions only visible to youDraft entryVisible to anyone (with link)Visible to the member’s friends (with link)Only visible to you
The biggest challenge in adapting John Green’s novel to the screen would always be translating his literarily effective first-person exploration of anxiety into a more distancing cinematic form. However, Hannah Marks’ strategy—expressing Aza’s “intrusive thoughts” editorially through insert shots of microbiological imaging, voiceover as first-person thoughts, and tense sound effects and score—is almost always viscerally evocative and stylistically consistent. These sequences are highly effective, complemented by dialogue that explores how anxiety can also affect the person on the other side of a romantic or platonic relationship. As someone who has been on both sides, this exploration is particularly meaningful, and the title metaphor is delivered through a thoughtful alteration from Green’s novel, giving that moment even greater poignancy.
Marks also appears to share a common criticism of this source material: the mystery storyline is not particularly compelling and serves more to create plot than to enrich the narrative’s themes or characters. Streamlining this element so heavily from the novel makes it feel especially out of place in the film adaptation, resulting in some screenplay choices that significantly hold back what can otherwise be quite specific and special about the coming-of-age storytelling here. Marks’ direction is patient and intentional, and Isabela Merced’s lead performance fills that space with an honesty and effortlessness that gives the best YA films their sense of heightened emotional naturalism.
Letterboxd is an independent service created by a small team, and we rely mostly on the support of our members to maintain our site and apps. Please consider upgrading to a Pro account—for less than a couple bucks a month, you’ll get cool additional features like all-time and annual stats pages (example), the ability to select (and filter by) your favorite streaming services, and no ads!
