Movie Review: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014)

Three and half Stars out of Five

PG-13

Katniss Everdeen: Jennifer Lawrence

Peeta Mellark: Josh Hutcherson

Gale Hawthorne: Liam Hemsworth

Haymitch Abernathy: Woody Harrelson

President Snow: Donald Sutherland

Plutach Heavensbee: Philip Seymour Hoffman

President Alma Coin: Julianne Moore

Effie Trinket: Elizabeth Banks

Director: Francis Lawrence

Screenplay:  Peter Craig and Danny Strong

Adaptation: Suzanne Collins from the novel Mockingjay

“Mockingjay” was the concluding novel in a trilogy of Young Adult fiction by author Suzanne Collins published in 2010 (the first two novels, “The Hunger Games” and “Catching Fire” were published in 2008 and 2009, respectively). The owners of the movie franchise created from the Hunger Games trilogy have split Mockingjay into two parts in the same manner as “The Hobbit” or “Harry Potter” franchises. While it is easy to criticize the apparent greed that may well have motivated such a decision, I was very pleased with this Part 1 version of the Mockingjay. I have not read the novel and as such my view is based solely on the movie’s merits; and of those, it was a pleasing afternoon’s entertainment.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 picks up right where The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) left off. Our heroine, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) has been plucked from certain death by members of the resistance. She is flown to the supposedly destroyed District 13 where she is met by the leaders of the resistance: President Coin (Julianne Moore), Plutarch (Philip Seymour Hoffman), and her boyfriend, Gale (Liam Hemsworth). The resistance wants to use her as a propaganda tool to encourage the other districts to rise up against the Capitol and its President (Donald Sutherland). Initially repulsed by the falseness of the play acting required of her for this role, Katniss is drawn in after she visits one of the recently attacked districts and sees for herself the devastation wrought by Snow and his army of masked soldiers. To be sure, Katniss has opportunities to display her courage and moral rectitude in the face of her opponents’ violence and the distracting requirements of her propaganda duties. She is as well distraught over the Capitol’s use of her former Hunger Games partner, Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) as the Capitol’s propaganda tool. She worries for his safety and parlays his rescue into a deal with President Coin that bears for her some un-welcomed results.

The story line is generally one not uncommon in Young Adult fiction; that is to say, an adolescent is set against a morally bankrupt enemy and through their pluck and conviction, they win the day. This movie version has taken the opportunity to play with certain motifs from current events: the use of propaganda to recruit volunteers, the fight by guerrillas against a bigger, far more powerful foe, bombing to suppress the opposition, etc. The lighting and color choices used by director Francis Lawrence serve well to set a grim and dark tone to the film. Filming the bombers from ground level helps to emphasize the inequality of the power distribution between the two sets of combatants in this story.  The aftermath of a “fire bombing” paints in too vivid colors the grisly costs of war. These techniques help to push this movie into much darker regions that those usually inhabited by YA fiction; to give the movie a gritty feel of reality. Indeed, director Lawrence tries and to some extent succeeds in making this story fairly realistic in terms of the hellishness of war; while there is a fantasy element to Katniss’ successes, there is a stark reality to the misery and actual costs of war.

The acting by Jennifer Lawrence is per her usual standards set to a high mark. As noted, her character succeeds where most would fail, and this pulls the story out of a more reality-based genre and back into the Young Adult genre it originally inhabited. But on several occasions, the Katniss character is placed in situations (e.g. Peeta's imprisonment and her confused love for him vs. her faltering love for Gale) wherein Lawrence’s ability to emote can settle the story back into a realm to which anyone can relate. Some notable acting is brought forth by the ensemble of Moore as the rebel’s determined and emotionally wounded president, Hutcherson as the tortured Peeta, or even the de-wigged/jumpsuit-wearing Banks as Effie bringing a comic element to the movie. Additionally, how the scenes by Hoffman as Plutach complicated by his far too untimely death in the real world affected the production of this movie (dedicated to his memory) were accomplished is really impressive.

Bottom-line, this movie brings a young adult’s novel to life for adults of all ages. It touches at times too lightly and at other times with some effect on subjects that are of concern and germane to today’s world, and primarily with the deft acting skills of Jennifer Lawrence, it brings to life the emotional scars such a story might well lay on anyone, even a young adult heroine.