THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 1
DIRECTOR: Francis Lawrence
CAST: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, |Stanley Tucci
CLASSIFICATION: 10-12 PG V
RUNNING TIME: 123 minutes
RATING: ***
WHEN a movie has cultivated expectations as a franchise, falling short of that, understandably, feeds into mass disappointment.
It’s akin to going and watching Dumb and Dumber To – but with only Harry Dunne. Or going to see The Transporter and Jason Statham is trying to make his getaway in a Totoya Prius.
With The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, Francis Lawrence treads a precarious path by going huge on the drama, which will leave fans feeling short-changed on its trademark action scenes. But, to his credit, it is done with commendable prudence.
Similar to The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, he dexterously plants the building blocks for the next instalment.
Thanks to the cleverly-penned script, which extracts masterful performances from its star-studded cast, viewers crawl through an emotional minefield of retribution and political subterfuge with this film.
And the surreal sub-context of making Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence) the poster girl for freedom is beautifully executed.
Mockingjay – Part 1 picks up from the aftermath of District 12 turned into rabble after the third Quarter Quell. Katniss’s world is shadowed by sadness. And she is completely cut up about Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) being help “captive” in the Capitol with President Snow flexing his tyrannical arm by executing anyone who displays allegiance to Katniss.
Meanwhile, back at District 13 HQ – firmly run by an aloof President Alma Coin – Katniss becomes a reluctant propaganda tool in the rebellion. But she has her own agenda, too. At the fore-front of it, is a rescue of Peeta and the other survivors from the games.
She is aided by her best friend Gale Hawthorne (Hemsworth), her recovering alcoholic mentor Haymitch Abernathy (Harrelson) and her irreverent stylist, Effie Trinket (Banks). And she has the full backing of Plutarch Heavensbee (Seymour Hoffman).
Lawrence is an artful puppeteer with his characters. Katniss’s vulnerability is first seen as a chink in her warrior armour. But it is then used as a useful weapon to ignite the combatant in her. Lawrence (Jennifer) beautifully executes the different layers to her performance, especially when she breaks out into an inspiring tune. There’s this naturalness that she evokes that’s lapped up by fans.
Sutherland again proves to be a doyen Machiavellian and his peerless performance is beautifully matched by the late Seymour Hoffman and Moore, who exudes this ambiguous edge as the liberator.
Stanley Tucci holds centre court as a camp and calculating talk show pawn of the Capitol.
Bottom line, each actor plays their part with aplomb and bona fide conviction, thereby cementing the magnetism of another cliff-hanger offering.
There are many facets at play in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, where the power struggles feed into unadulterated drama-laden anarchy. In other words, this is the calm before the storm…
If you liked The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire or The Maze Runner, you should enjoy this.