by Bennett Campbell Ferguson
Above: Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen
Just like "Harry Potter
and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" and "John Carter," "The
Hunger Games" is a movie whose discourse focuses chiefly on its successful
marketing campaign and box office performance ($155 million out of the gate),
rather than the nature of the actual story. This has become an unfortunate fate
for both good and bad films--there is nothing more irritating than listening to
critics and moviegoers jabber about the "phenomenal" success of the
"Harry Potter" films when the filmmaking craft behind them presents
such an interesting discussion topic.
But
"The Hunger Games" is a different creature--a tornado of hype
whooshing around an utterly unremarkable film. The movie has already been
showered with critical accolades, but I rather suspect that it would not be so
loved if the success of the book by Suzanne Collins had made everyone so eager
to like the film.
That
is not to say the film is without integrity--its conceit creates some
opportunities for moral ambiguity, even if they are not fully exploited. It's a
dystopian story, about a world where kids are forced to fight each other to the
death on television each year. Typically, the contestants are chosen at random
by Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) disrupts the procedure by volunteering
to save her sister Primrose from competing.
If you
are adept at sitting through boring seminars, you may stand a chance of staying
awake for the next part of the story. As Katniss is taken to the capitol to
compete, we are given an excruciatingly detailed account of the decadent
society that forces children to compete. No step of preparation for the games
is spared--opening parades, training, and grooming are all fully explored.
Occassionally, the procedure is disrupted when an authoritarian villain (played
by Stanley Tucci or Elizabeth Banks) flashes a voluminous pink dress or a grey pompadour
is your face.
These
garish details reveal the movie's first failing. There's not doubt that they
contribute to the candy-coated ickiness of the film's dystopia, but they also
make the villains seem like cartoon characters. They're a far cry from the
frightening business-suited baddies from the X-Men and Jason Bourne films.
A few
of the competing kids are more compelling. Ms. Lawrence plays Katniss as a
bland sleepwalker (though director Gary Ross and editors Christopher S. Capp,
Stephen Mirrione, and Juliette Welfling can take credit for that as well), but
Katniss' friend and fellow competitor Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) is a more
compelling figure. The disbelieving and fearful expression on Mr. Hutcherson's
face when he's chosen to compete is unforgettable, as is his understanding of a
simple fact: he's too scared and vulnerable to win.
But
there's more to the character. Several times during the games, he appears to
turn against Katniss, apparently to fool her enemies into letting her live. But
Mr. Ross has enough since to leave some doubt about Peeta's true goal--what if
he really does want to win? Does he half consider letting even his friend die.
There
are other moments of complex emotion in the film. Preparation for the games
involves a number of parades and TV appearances. Mr. Tucci's TV announcer
presents the games as a glorious sports event. This is effectively
cringe-inducing, yet there are moments when Katniss and Peeta buy into the
dramatic momentum of the games themselves. The willingness of people to embrace
the games as popcorn entertainment is horrifying and yet believable.
After
all, it is a good show. 24 kids and 23 must die--the possibilities for betrayal
and tortured romance are undeniably apealing, in spite of the awfulness.
Thrilling and chilling sound effects (like the rhythmic boom of a cannon
whenever a kid is killed) by Lon Bender (an academy award-nominee for his
brilliant work on "Drive") heighten an punctuate the drama.
But
they can't puncture the monotony. "The Hunger Games" is 30 minutes
too long--it would take a more imaginative director (like a Christopher Nolan
or a Bryan Singer) to grant all its details the motion and poetry required to
sustain the film's momentum. The final half of the movie is one long tale of
Katniss racing through the forest, defeating her competitors through a series
of dully happy accidents.
It all
leads to a dissatisfying and intriguing climax. What's fascinating is that
Katniss and Peeta's goals never go beyond winning the games--they have no
thought of justice or betterment of the world (in an early scene, Katniss
doubts whether anything can stop the games from existing).
But if
the choice this sour editing note shows some introspective integrity on the
part of the filmmakers, it also makes the film seem a little hollow. All that
death in one movie--it feels like it should mean something more.
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