This was the director's first film and it shows. Almost every instinct about the filmmaking is wrong. Both he and the director of photography should have been fired. How can you go wrong with such a great story - the book is wonderful - and this amazing cast - not a sour note in the whole cast - kudos to the casting director - but the bricks and mortar of the shots and locations make this like watching paint dry. The lighting makes everything so drab and not in a clever way to mirror the action or progression of the cancer, just bad lighting. This is shot like a movie of the week and if those are your expectations then you won't be disappointed - but if like me, you were aware of the buzz around this book to screen adaptation, you would be forgiven for expecting a little more. If you don't have the budget to shoot an epic love story then find the epic in nature - 0/10 for cinematography. To go all the way to Amsterdam and have nothing more than commonplace ambling along the canal shots - just shocking. Back to the drawing board. Perhaps I will live another twenty years to see the remake with a cameo from Shaileen as the nurse administering the cannula.