Film Review: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2. Rated M (mature themes, violence and horror sequence). 137 minutes. Directed by Francis Lawrence. Screenplay by Peter Craig and Danny Strong. Based on the novel by Suzanne Collins.

It was never going to be easy. With the arrival of the game-changing The Hunger Games (2012), the epic contest between Collins’ reluctant heroine Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and the menacing megalomaniac President Snow (Donald Sutherland) kicked off in spectacular fashion. Then came the sequel Catching Fire (2013), and then the first part of Collins’ third novel in the series, Mockingjay, released in 2014 as the first of a two-part finale. 

It is impossible to deny that with each new addition, The Hunger Games has progressively lost all of its uniqueness. Instead, in this ultra-violent and haphazard Part 2, the once complex and resourceful Katniss is reduced to a blind-sided, vengeful warrior, fixated on assassinating Snow.

With Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), Gale (Liam Hemsworth), Finnick (Sam Claflin) and a handful of other bodies in tow for the astonishingly high body count, Katniss chooses a ridiculously conventional route to Snow’s mansion –exposing herself and her unfortunate comrades to any number of cruel (and obvious) life-ending dangers.

The essence of Part 2’s problems lies in the commercially-driven decision to split the third book into two films. It rapidly becomes obvious that, apart from the Peeta’s character development (beautifully played out by Hutcherson), there is neither enough interesting story developments nor originality to guarantee it will survive, dramatically, as a stand-alone film.

Francis Lawrence (no relation to Jennifer), has directed all but the first film in the series. And as the sun sets over the final scene, it is difficult not to imagine that he might be feeling as though he’s arrived a little too late at what had been a fantastic party, only to discover that there’s only a cold sausage roll left.

And no more beer.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1

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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1. Rated M (mature themes and violence). 123 minutes. Directed by Francis Lawrence. Screenplay by Peter Craig and Danny Strong. Based on the novel by Suzanne Collins.

Verdict: A bloated outing for the first of the two-part cinematic climax to The Hunger Games.

Beginning where The Hunger Games: Catching Fire left us, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) has been relocated to District 13, a rebel-held underground fortress, to recover from the Games. It is in District 13 that the rebellion against The Capitol is overseen by President Coin (Julianne Moore) and Plutarch Heavensbee (the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, to whom the film is dedicated).

Knowing Katniss is capable of inspiring people to rise up against The Capitol’s President Snow (Donald Sutherland), Coin invites her to assume the title of ‘Mockingjay’, a symbol of the rebellion. Once she witnesses the extent of the destruction inflicted on the Districts, Katniss agrees to take on the responsibility, but only if the brain-washed Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), who Snow is using a weapon to destroy Katniss' influence over the rebels, is rescued from The Capitol and reunited with her.

Whether it is because the final book in the trilogy is being turned into two films (a trend that began with The Hobbit, then the Harry Potter and Twilight films), or that there are not actually any sequences involving the infamous Games, Mockingjay – Part 1 is a mostly forgettable affair. While it ramps up the tension and the action in the second half, much of the first half ambles along in a bloated, self-satisfied manner that is completely at odds with its cinematic pedigree.

Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Water for Elephants, I Am Legend, Constantine) and the always excellent Jennifer Lawrence work wonders with the material’s limited range. And while it might be long time to have waited, the final sequences between Peeta and Katniss are extraordinarily powerful, with Hutcherson bringing real acting clout to the screen for the first, and possibly only, time in the entire movie.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: The Butler

The Butler. Rated M (mature themes, violence and coarse language). 132 minutes. Directed by Lee Daniels. Written by Danny Strong.

Verdict: A finely wrought drama about realising why and when to make a stand.

With Precious (2009), his blistering tale of privilege, abuse, poverty and ambition, Daniels delivered a compelling drama about difference. With The Butler, (loosely based Will Haywood’s Washington Post article about 89-year-old Eugene Allen who worked as a butler to eight American Presidents in the White House for 30 years), the drama is considerably less compelling, but certainly as profound.

Strong’s screenplay takes too many liberties with the origins of the story, and bundles every fictionalised dramatic highpoint up into a neat little package. The result is that the epic sweep of the story becomes more like a montage of conflict-driven snapshots – a series of hastily scribbled postcards from inside the American capital rather than a deeper engagement with one man’s unique perspective on the advancement of civil rights.

Forest Whittaker (The Last King of Scotland) is excellent as (the re-named) Cecil Gaines, delivering a performance of exceptional power, grace and humility. As the family and political conflict swirls around him, Whittaker’s Gaines wages an invisible war with his own conscience. When his conscience finally defeats his sense of duty, it is as fine a scene as we have witnessed in the cinema this year.

If you can get past the familiarity of Oprah Winfrey’s television talk show host persona, hers is an equally fine performance as Gloria Gaines, Cecil’s loyal (to a point) wife, who wages her own internalised struggle with her husband’s perceived position of immense privilege with which he appears to do nothing. As she watches her eldest son Louis (an excellent David Oyelowo) risk his life as a political activist, Winfrey absolutely nails Gloria’s constant (and equally duty bound) battle to hold to the love and respect she feels for her husband.

Daniels certainly takes his time telling this fascinating story. And what it lacks in the passion and brilliance of Daniels’s own Precious or Alan Parker’s Mississippi Burning (1988), it makes up for with its quiet contemplation about how people with different points of view can find common ground and change the world.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.