The Hunger Games

 12A

2012

Director Gary Ross

Amidst the overbearing spoonfuls of Sci-Fi clichés fed to us via flamboyant costumes and preposterously crayon coloured hair, The Hunger Games manages to wriggle away from the puberty-ridden bowl of other sprog-centric dystopian dramas (Battle Royale, Lord of the Flies) by doing all the little things that blockbusters so often forget: keeping things small, keeping things personal and making the characters, not the action, the focus of the story.

In the futuristic nation of Panem, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer ‘PHWOAR!’ Lawrence, X-Men: First Class, 2011), in order to protect her young sister, volunteers to take part in 74^th annual Hunger Games, an event in which 24 adolescents from the Districts 1 to 12 are selected to compete in a survivalist fight to the death.

Despite the narrative and visual scope of Suzanne Collins’ original series of books, the temptation to cluster this bravado into the novel’s first cinematic outing is intelligently avoided by director Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, 2003). There are scenes of breathtaking spectacle - most notably when the tributes are literally wheeled out before the Capitol’s baying and extremely camp mob - but these are outweighed by a far greater sense of dread created through a well-developed relationship with the film’s protagonists.

Lawrence, though clearly too old and voluptuous for the role, instils in Katniss the same fearsome yet loveable grit she did for her Oscar-nominated portrayal of a searching daughter in Winter’s Bone (2010). Even ignoring Lawrence’s status as a certified babe, it isn’t a chore to have to spend the majority of the lengthy running time in her full-lipped, full-figured company. This characterization is not achieved via the awkward and pointless scenes between her and possible beau Gale (Liam Hemsworth), but rather in, for example, the “Reaping”. This is an unbearably tense and wonderfully directed (the omission of any music a particularly effective decision) scene in which the citizens of District 12 are herded like silent cattle for the selection of their two tributes.

Things do start to unravel a tad following the second standout sequence at the Cornucopia. The tributes await the start of the games, in an oddly bloodless and yet incredibly violent, visceral and shocking scene, thanks largely to the involvement of very young children. From here, as Katniss and her fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) do their best to outlast the remaining competitors amidst the forest, The Hunger Games does on occasion grind to a narrative halt and the old temptation to glance at one’s watch begins to threaten. Simply put, it is too long. But not by much. 142 minutes would be excessive even for a Peter Jackson effort, so to say that Gary Ross is able to maintain a coherent flow for the majority is a huge testament to just how well crafted The Hunger Games is.

Do not be put off by the hordes of screaming young girls waiting behind you in the queue and sniffy bespectacled folks labelling it as a “children’s film” as they stroll into the latest Franco-Germanic offering across the street, The Hunger Games is one of the tastiest surprises of the year: an entertaining thriller with weighty characterization and serious undertones that make even the most pretentious of awards fodder look thin on plot.

*** ¾ / *****