The Kids Aren’t All Right

The Hunger Games
PG-13

Words by Mandy Johnston

The Hunger Games, the adaptation of the first book in the wildly successful trilogy by Suzanne Collins, centers on Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), a tough, bow-hunting coal miner’s daughter in a not-so-distant futuristic dystopian society wherein the country is now known as Panem and has been divvied up into 12 districts, ruled by a president at the Capitol. Each year, to remind residents of the implications of an attempted uprising against the government years ago, each district must submit one young male and female as “tributes” to the Hunger Games, where they will fight to the death until only one remains.

I can’t recall a movie that had me so emotionally invested within the first 10 minutes. Lawrence skillfully conveys the strength, courage and heart of a 16-year-old chosen to kill or be killed for the elites’ entertainment and a false promise of honor. Elements of Ree, the character she embodied in 2010’s Winter’s Bone, show themselves here and there, but lend such depth and emotion as a steadfast character with a commitment to her fellow tributes–at least, the ones who aren’t out to kill her first.

Early into the games, President Snow (Donald Sutherland) explains to Head Gamemaker Seneca Crane (Wes Bentley), in only the way a benevolent tyrant can, why the games must have a “winner.” Otherwise, he poses, why wouldn’t they just round up 24 kids and execute them every year to remind the poor fuckers not to attempt an uprising again? “Hope,” he says. Everybody needs hope. Fear is dangerous, he offers; but too much hope is much more so.

There is realism to this futuristic movie that makes the balancing between fear and hope almost palpable. Settings are downright recognizable–unnervingly so in the live studio audience fawning over Caesar Flickerman’s (Stanley Tucci) Seacrestian hosting of the games from his comfortable seat. Everdeen and her male counterpart Peeta Mellark’s (Josh Hutcherson) support team at the Capitol, including former District 12 winner and their drunk mentor Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson), wildly fashionable PR pro Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) and Cinna (Lenny Kravitz), their stylist who quickly becomes Everdeen’s number-one supporter, all too reveal moments of hope for Everdeen’s triumph while fearing the implications that might bring.

Would this be a YA novel adaptation without a little romance? It is what the audience wants, right? But there is no superfluous or cheesy romance here. A romance cultivated and created for survival has none of those groan-inducing elements. There is but a smidgen of drama between Everdeen, Mellark and Everdeen’s guy pal back home Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth) to add depth to an already heavy story, but this is not the doomed young-love triangle the Lionsgate media juggernaut is parading all over town.

Come to think of it, there is nothing cheesy about this movie. From the costumes to the scenery, the music to the dialogue, the movie itself is good, save for a few blips in the storyline. But at the end, as I sat wondering just how many in our packed theater read the books prior to seeing the movie, I had to ask myself: how many of us knew what we were in for and flocked to the theaters anyway? In the highly charged scene where all 24 “tributes” are standing on their pedestals, waiting through the unbelievably tenuous countdown from 50 until the “Games” are on, the realization comes: holy fucking shit I’m about to watch kids fight to the death. And you do. In all its blurry, gritty, heinous glory, masses across the country are treated to brief, visceral scenes of preteens murdered at the hands of bigger, stronger, trained teenage killers from the wealthier districts whose wards never lose. Whether you read the books or not, you knew it was coming, from the second Everdeen volunteered 10 minutes into the movie. Did anyone else have a growing sickening pit in their stomach like me, or have we just become desensitized to the thoughts and images of 10-year-olds shot through the heart with sharpened spears?

My hope is that more than a few moviegoers will question just how close to home this spectator sport parable is playing out while we jockey for seats and oversized popcorn at our local Cineplex. My fear is for this culture that will pack into theaters and shatter box office records previously set by pirates and vampires to watch a movie that is, in essence, kids killing each other.