The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1

Rating

Director
Francis Lawrence
Screenplay
Peter Craig, Danny Strong, Suzanne Collins (Novel: Suzanne Collins)
Length
123 min.
Starring
Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Willow Shields, Sam Claflin, Elizabeth Banks, Mahershala Ali, Jena Malone, Jeffrey Wright
MPAA Rating
PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some disturbing images and thematic material

Review
Having found its footing in two prior outings, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 coasts on its predecessors successes without inventing new or interesting pathways to deliver the audience to the final chapter with unanswered questions and a desire to see where it all ends.

Jennifer Lawrence gives Katniss Everdeen the requisite compassion, a character she could now play in her sleep. She doesn’t rest with this performance, continuing to capture the resilience, fear and perseverance she’s always felt. Now, with the stakes spilling out of the arena, she must survive in a new landscape, one where the threats are directly targeted at her loved ones, including a man whom she has come to love even if he isn’t the one she intends to be with forever.

At the end of Catching Fire, we knew that Katniss had been rescued from the arena along with several others, but where Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) was no one was certain. The film opens as Katniss is trying piece things together and stifle the trauma she’s observed after two bouts at the hands of the maniacal President Snow (Donald Sutherland). Katniss and those who were rescued are now being housed in a secret bunker in District 13, the first region obliterated by the Capital in an effort to tamp down rebellion. In the cavernous bunkers below the former district, a leader (Julianne Moore) has emerged to lead the impoverished and assailed districts to victory.

Hutcherson is given limited screen time this outing. As a prisoner of the Capital, his grave appearance and physical transformation aid his solid work. His slow personality degradation is testament to a terrific actor given room to breathe. Of course, much of the experienced cast in the film delivers solid work including Moore as the stoic, driven President Coin; the late Philip Seymour Hoffman as the calculating, creative Plutarch Heavensbee; Sutherland as the reprehensible Snow; Woody Harrelson as the compassionate, forward-thinking advisor Haymitch; and Elizabeth Banks as the crestfallen, but determined Effie Trinket.

As a relatively inexperienced director, Francis Lawrence doesn’t strike out in new directions in his second franchise outing. Catching Fire showed that he wasn’t a poor choice to take over from the unfairly delayed and replaced Gary Ross, but this outing is far too controlled and traditional to give the audience the jolt it needs. The screenplay itself, co-written by the novel’s creator Suzanne Collins, remains the jewel of the effort, propping up the weak characterizations Lawrence pulls from the younger cast. The screenplay also underlines just how strong the source material is. Even when the directorial flair is absent and the plotting is a touch slow, the power and importance of the original novel comes through clearly.

Unlike the prior films, the flamboyance of the Capital is virtually eliminated this time out, removing the viewer to the flat, gray landscape of underground bunkers. The characters are clothed in bland, formless uniforms and the exterior scenes are littered with dingy, cluttered detritus, all of which combine to set us in a locale that accentuates the depravity of the enemy and highlights the importance of victory for all involved. This is the kind of stark production design and costume work that is too often ignored in favor of more flashy or ostentatious work even though it’s just as deserving of recognition.

Setting up the final film in the franchise is no easy task. It may make the film seem unfinished, but Mockingjay – Part 1 ends in the most appropriate place even after a tense, but overlong surgical strike into the Capital to save Peeta and Joanna Mason (Jena Malone). A perfect conclusion doesn’t alleviate strategic issues with the structure, pacing and listless style, but it helps establishes the stakes for the next chapter and shows that what has come before is still important even if it isn’t everything fans had hoped for.
Spoiler Discussion
Explaining why the finale was perfect to someone who hasn’t read the book is difficult at best. For those who have, the importance of the moment of retrieving Peeta only to find out his tortured mind has turned him against Katniss, is sublime. This is the crux of much of the rest of the outings. It’s not just that the rebellion must take on the Capital and bring it to its knees, but it also exemplifies the utter depravity of President Snow and his regime. For them, it’s not just about victory, it’s also about inflicting the most emotional harm on your enemy as possible in an effort to demoralize their strengths.

As Katniss fights to thwart Snow, she must come to terms with her growing relationship with Peeta and how it impacts her long love affair with Gale (Liam Hemsworth). This all plays into one of the most fascinating, compelling stories written in the last few decades. It can talk about many complex human emotions, depraved socio-political atmospheres and human perseverance with equal weight and forethought. The film does a tremendous job establishing all of these little details capturing the complexity of the narrative and its themes without sacrificing the thrill and excitement of the overarching storyline.

Review Written

March 9, 2015