Anticipated grade: 9/10
If you live in a cardboard box or have shunned all forms of entertainment and media for the past several months, you may not have heard that a little movie called THE HUNGER GAMES came out today. So let me fill you in, just in case. It's based on the first in a trilogy of best-selling novles about a dystopian future where a totalitarian government keeps its citizens in line by taking 24 of their teenagers once a year and making them fight to the death in an arena till there is only one Victor remaining. Oh, and they televise the event nationwide as required viewing. The midnight showings of the film across the country last night made $19.7 million dollars, the highest midnight gross for any non-sequel movie ever, and the seventh-highest midnight gross in history. The six films ahead of it? Three Harry Potter movies and three Twilight movies. So yeah. It's sort of a big deal.
I myself have thoroughly enjoyed the book series, having read each novel twice. I've recommended them to several friends who looked at me skeptically and then returned to me barely a week later having finished all three books and raving about how much they enjoyed them. If you are one of the seventeen people in the country who hasn't read them yet, then go read them right now. No seriously, why are you still reading this? Why aren't you on your way to Barnes & Noble as we speak? Go! Don't walk, run!
All of this is to say that I couldn't have been more excited to see this movie. I loved every casting announcement and thought the trailers were fantastic. As I sat in my seat in the theater in Times Square, surrounded by other rabidly anxious fans, I will admit that my anticipation and expectations rose to a ridiculously high level. It was kind of unfair, as no film can match such high hopes, but I have to say that THE HUNGER GAMES did a bang-up job.
First off, pretty much all the casting is spot-on. Jennifer Lawrence anchors the film with a raw, believable performance as our hero, Katniss Everdeen. She's a resourceful, strong young woman, the kind of hero the multitudinous fans of TWILIGHT really need to shake off the icky influence of man-crazy Bella. (Of course, as with any film produced by Hollywood, there is a bit of romance, but it's secondary [or, really, octonary] to everything else going on in this story jam-packed with smart satire, cultural critiques, and dire predictions of our country's future.) Miss Lawrence, who has already received an Oscar nomination for her work in WINTER'S BONE, nails the desperate and scared, yet courageous and kind nature of Katniss. Key moment: As she says goodbye to Cinna before being lifted into the arena, you can see her literally shaking with fear. A wonderful, physical, fully-realized performance.
Josh Hutcherson, who proved he has acting chops next to Julianne Moore, Annette Bening and Mark Ruffalo in the critically-acclaimed THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, really comes into his own here as Peeta Mellark. I could literally feel all of the 14-year-old girls in my theater simultaneously start hating Jennifer Lawrence as Hutcherson stared adoringly at her with those hunky baker's eyes of his and stroked her face with those hunky bread-kneading hands. Hutcherson nails Peeta's vulnerability and naivete, and I can't wait to see his arc in the next two movies, as Peeta really undergoes the most drastic and interesting journey of pretty much any character in the series.
The supporting cast is rounded out with a staggeringly talented group of actors: Donald Sutherland as the calculating and evil President Snow; Woody Harrelson as Katniss and Peeta's drunken mentor, Haymitch Abernathy; Lenny Kravitz as Katniss' enigmatic and supportive stylist, Cinna; Stanley Tucci as the winsome emcee of the games, Caesar Flickermann; Wes Bentley as the sycophantic Head Gamemaker, Seneca Crane. Perhaps best of all is Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket, the vapid and oblivious advisor who guides Katniss and Peeta through the Capitol and cheerfully congratulates them on their good fortune.
The film is directed with tension and immediacy by Gary Ross (PLEASANTVILLE). The cinematography is a bit shaky and relies heavily on close-ups, so it may take some getting used to by some audience members. But it lends an air of realism to the proceedings, as well as helps to mask some of the violence. That violence will be a main topic of conversation between attendees: for some it will have been too much, and for others (probably most) it will be too little. While the violence is not necessarily shied away from, it is never gory and often not explicitly shown. This will be disappointing to some fans, as the child-on-child violence is integral to the story -- I have heard fans both online and in the theater itself saying how much they wished the film had gone full-out "R." To that, I would point out that one of the major themes of the books is the glorification of violence in our culture, and I would then ask how those people feel about being a part of the culture that sadistically feeds on the pain, dismemberment and death of fictional people. It's a vicious cycle -- as one character in the movie says, "If no one watches, then they don't have a game." Our participation is integral to the perpetuation of violence in our society -- if we stop going to see those kinds of movies, they'll stop making them. I think THE HUNGER GAMES did a terrific job of not glossing over the violence of the source material while simultaneously not reveling in it.
Like all book-to-screen adaptations, there are moments lost in translation. Some die-hard book fans may despair at the omission of things like Katniss' friend Madge or Cinna's flighty prep team. But to me, one of the most interesting parts of the movie was something that was added. The books are all told from the first-person view of Katniss herself, which means we can only see what she can see. With the movie unfettered from her viewpoint, we spend quite a bit of time with Seneca Crane in the Game Room, getting to see just how he manages to manipulate the games, inserting obstacles in Katniss' way and unleashing various terrors when things get too boring. I enjoyed getting a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes machinations and all the things it had to say about our culture's love of "reality TV," where events some may perceive as "real" are either entirely fabricated or at least massively manipulated by unseen forces.
In terms of book-to-film adaptations, on the scale of THE GOLDEN COMPASS to THE LORD OF THE RINGS (I'll let you figure out which end is which), I would say that THE HUNGER GAMES lies somewhere near the top. While no adaptation will likely match the brilliance of LOTR any time soon, THE HUNGER GAMES is a remarkably faithful film. There is truly something here for everyone: standing in line in the men's room after the film, I heard one guy remark in a surprised tone of voice to his buddy: "It wasn't nearly as girly as I thought it would be." There is action, laughter, tears, compelling characters, insightful commentary on our culture, and, yes, a little bit of romance too, although even that is intrinsically tied to the outcome of the Games.
While the movie didn't necessarily exceed my expectations (although it probably never could have), it definitely didn't disappoint. Bring on the next two! Hopefully they will both be as critically and commercially successful as this one and help to remind teenage girls everywhere that they don't have to be like Bella, always waiting for pasty, glittery emo boys to come rescue them. They can be like Katniss, pick up a bow and arrow and rescue their damn selves, thank you very much.
Actual grade: 9/10
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