3 stars (out of four)
“May the odds be ever in your favor.” This sentence gets
tossed around a lot (probably a few too many times) in The Hunger Games, an adaptation of the immensely popular young adult
novel written by Suzanne Collins that is smarter than your average teen craze.
The irony of this eloquent bit of well-wishing is that the odds are illusory.
Very little is left to chance in the battle-to-the-death blood sport that gives
the movie its title. The shadowy figures who host the gruesome Hunger Games, a
hybrid of Battle Royale and
American Idol, carefully tweak their tournament to appease the masses that
watch it on live TV.
Katniss Everdeen (played with unflinching stoicism by
Jennifer Lawrence) is a teenage resident of the dystopian world, Panem, which
is made up of a dozen districts and controlled by aristocrats in the wealthy
capital. Some years earlier, an uprising was quelled by the government and as
part of the rebels’ punishment an annual tournament began. Every year, two
children from each district between the ages of twelve and eighteen – a boy and
a girl – are selected at random to participate in a televised fight to the
death. What the winner receives for coming out alive is never entirely clear,
though there are vague promises of riches and luxury and (presumably) food to
bring back to their famished home district.
When Katniss’s young sister (Willow Shields) is chosen for
this year’s Games, Katniss volunteers to go in her place, an unprecedented
move. She departs on the next high-speed train to the capital, leaving behind a
handsome, platonic pal, Gale (Liam Hemsworth), whose clean-shaven face and
impeccable hair suggest a Herculean devotion to personal grooming in the
coal-mining town of District 12.
Accompanying her is Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), a less dashing
but no less sensitive young man and District 12’s male entry. On their way to
the capital, Katniss and Peeta meet Effie (a wonderful Elizabeth Banks), an
enthusiast of the Games who is apparently oblivious to their lethal
consequences, and Haymitch (Woody Harrelson), a whisky drinking former winner
of the Games who mentors the kids on survival tactics.
Filling out an overcrowded supporting cast is Wes Bentley as
Seneca Crane, the sinister producer of the Games; Donald Sutherland, the
President of this Orwellian world to whom Crane answers; and a lively,
blue-haired Stanley Tucci who provides commentary for the Games’ telecast.
Lenny Kravitz also shows up in an extraneous role as the kids’ fashion
designer.
There are a lot of characters in The Hunger Games and quite a few things to look at (including some
beautiful photography from cinematographer Tom Stern), but it is Jennifer
Lawrence who commands our attention. Ms. Lawrence, who has hop-skipped her way
from obscurity to super stardom in less than two years, is a forceful actress
who imbues Katniss with quiet intensity and dogged perseverance. She takes this
character every bit as serious as her role in the 2010 indie noir Winter’s
Bone, which earned her an Oscar nomination.
That is not to say The Hunger Games is a trivial tween fad. The fact that the violence
(which we see in quick, suggestive cuts) is broadcast via hidden cameras for
all of Panem to watch adds a fascinating, self-referential element to the film.
Not only will Katniss need to be skilled with a knife and a bow, and be able to
build a shelter and secure clean water; she will also have to win the affection
of the viewers at home, some of whom are “sponsors” with the ability to send
their favorite contestant valuable care packages of medicine and food.
So winning the tournament is less a testament to one’s
strength and endurance than one’s ability to ham it up for the camera. Haymitch
encourages Katniss and Peeta to play up a star-crossed romance between them in
the hopes that this backstory may score a few sponsors.
The Hunger Games
cherry-picks successful elements from other recent young adult fantasy novel
adaptations – the tournament from the fourth Harry Potter, the love triangle from Twilight – but the live TV twist makes the movie more than
another studio cash-grab vying for teen girl fandom.
In Twilight, a girl
is torn between two young men and her decision takes four books (and five
movies). In The Hunger Games, a
girl who already has a thing for one guy falls for a second because her
survival, both in context of the story and as a character in the franchise,
depends on it. Author Suzanne Collins knows just as well as Haymitch the
assured marketing power of a good teenage romance. The odds were in this
movie’s favor the whole time.
- Steve Avigliano, 3/29/12
