My wife and I finally caught up with The Fault in Our Stars at the 19th St. theater last night. We had been avoiding it (even though my wife loved the book) because of its poor critical reception and uninspiring trailer. It turns out that once again those two barometers are very questionable measures of whether a film is worth seeing. The Fault in Our Stars is actually an enjoyable, decently-made film; it’s not spectacular, but it’s definitely worth seeing.

I was expecting The Fault in Our Stars to be a real tearjerker – indeed, I was looking forward to a good cry – but although the story was fairly compelling, I didn’t cry or even choke up once, and even though the audience all around me was blubbering, I attribute this mostly to their over-excitement at watching movie that was not centered around robot combat or middle school potty-humor. Or perhaps it was simply the formidable bond that’s forming between Shailene Woodley a large numbers of young women in society. The story seems to be architected really well, with wonderful and interesting main characters, but somehow the film doesn’t quite gel emotionally. It’s partly because the screenplay lacked a certain sophistication and depth, partly because the pacing seemed a bit off at key moments, and partly because its manipulation of its soundtrack was a bit too conspicuous (a Cameron Crowe soundtrack would have done wonders for this film).

On the way home after the film, I found myself fondly remembering the almost identically-themed My Life Without Me, an absolute masterpiece of cinema which I would consider to be the ultimate, perfected form of this kind of story; I started to cry right on the street just remembering the incredible scene where Sarah Polly has to let Mark Ruffalo go, right after his amazing “I’m classically in love” speech, a scene so emotionally devastating it tears your heart out. The Fault in Our Stars is very, very far from achieving this depth of emotional resonance, somehow.

But The Fault in Our Stars definitely has its merits. The first is Shailene Woodley, a compelling young actress with an easy, natural talent and a great voice, who thankfully is so far eschewing Batman and Spiderman movies in favor of rather small, gutsy dramatic roles. She provides a very appealing and stable center for what is a lovely, moving and completely uncynical depiction of average kids falling in love and dealing with life’s difficulties. Her co-star Ansel Elgort gives a very interesting, unaffected performance that takes a while to grow on you, but which totally wins you over in the end. The Fault in Our Stars is a good story, charming and funny at times, somewhat surprising, sad but uplifting, and always very human and honest. It’s quite enjoyable, even though it never quite achieves the emotional peak it was clearly striving for.

If you like this genera of movies, I would ignore the critics and give The Fault in Our Stars a chance.