Just Another Day in Middle School

The popularity of Suzanne Collins’s “The Hunger Games” trilogy is well-deserved. Though aimed at young adults, the dystopic drama is gripping for adults as well, with complex characters, a political backdrop that resonates at many levels and a fearless, go-for-broke plot. (The writing is pretty great too.) It was controversial when it came out, and the film, despite the huge public relations machine that propelled its opening night to new heights, raised hackles. It’s about, among other things, a competition in which teenagers must fight each other to the death but it’s also about the morally bankrupt political regime that makes it possible for such an event to take place. Some years after environmental disaster has caused the complete breakdown of civil society, America has been rebuilt into the country of Panem, divided into 12 districts, each defined by its products, and ruled by a dictator who quells rebellion by forcing each district to choose two teenagers and deliver them to the capitol for the annual Hunger Games.  If a teen breaks rules, his name is entered into the lottery more often. The games are broadcast live in a gigantic reality television extravaganza, and everyone in Panem is forced to watch. District 12 is the mining district, the poorest one, intentionally kept out of sight and ignored by the capitol. Visually it looks like a series of Dorothea Lange photos — pinched women with hollow cheeks and dead eyes look after ragged urchins who scramble for crusts of bread. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen’s father died in a mining explosion and her mother descended into a catatonic depression, leaving Katniss to care for her younger sister Prim. It’s Prim’s name who is drawn on Reaping Day, and without a thought Katniss hurls herself into the ring to go as her sister’s substitute. Her male counterpart is Peeta Mellark, the baker’s son, and the two are whisked away to the capitol by speeding space age train. As Katniss, Jennifer Lawrence’s tremendous physical performance anchors the movie. Katniss is strong. She feeds her family on game she hunts with a contraband bow and arrow. But she is uncertain, angry, awkward. In other words, a heroine any teen (and many adults) can relate to. It’s almost impossible to review a movie without making reference to the book it’s based on. What’s missing from Lawrence’s portrayal  is Katniss’ deep cynicism, the “fight the power” subversiveness her character showed in the novel.   The film also glosses over the violence. Using a shaky hand-held camera, the fighting and killing is shown at odd angles or from afar, minimizing the emotional impact. In part because of that, we barely get to know the other “tributes,” as the players are called, so the threat they pose, or the emotions (grief, relief) when they die and Katniss lives, are muted. Among the adults, Stanley Tucci, in a blue wig, is Caesar Flickerman, the talk show host who pushes Katniss to bare her emotions to gain sympathy from the crowd. And Woody Harrelson is Haymitch, who won the games decades earlier, the only other tribute from 12 ever to have done so. Now he’s a cynical drunk, but he’s also the mentor advising Katniss and Peeta. You’ve got to make them like you, he snarls at Katniss, “but you’ve got as much charm as a dead slug.” Maybe so, but compared to other popular heroines of recent pop culture, Katniss is miles above Bella Swan, the passive swooning heroine of the Twilight series. What she lacks in charm, she makes up for in bravery, brains and a powerful moral compass that steers her through the world she’s been born into. And it is a moral universe. I think the death and destruction is more upsetting to adults, especially parents, who feel the death of a child as a devastating event. To my daughters, the violence of these books is no different from Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and perhaps feels something like the social violence, the triumphs and deaths of an average day in middle school. “The Hunger Games” is rated PG-13 for violence involving teens. It is playing at The Moviehouse in Millerton, NY, and elsewhere.