This film was popular with young adults. My daughter when to an advance preview, the kind where you have a live by satellite Q&A session with the stars.

As a parent you do end up questioning why would you want to see a romance movie about young people with cancer? In this case beautiful young people in a Hollywood movie. I had a sibling who had cancer at a young age, it was horrible, a nightmare and nothing like this movie.

Hazel (Shailene Woodley) has cancer. She goes to a cancer support group where she meets Augustus (Ansel Elgort) a one legged cancer survivor. Both share an acerbic wit and an unconventional view of life. On a visit to Amsterdam to see a reclusive and alcoholic writer they fall in love.

The fact that they have a kiss in Anne Frank's attic where a crowd applauds tells you all you need to know that this film has no taste.

It starts off engagingly, like a stoic fight against the odds kind of movie with some black humour. It then becomes inert, really going nowhere, the narration becomes a nuisance and then the saccharine kicks in.