The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015. Remaining movies: 52 Days to go: 36
Movie #388: The Hunger Games
A Kindle is a wonderful thing to have when you’re nursing. You can hold it with one hand, change pages with a slight tap of your thumb, and not move for sometimes hours — especially if the baby in question likes to snooze while she eats. My daughter was born in the first quarter of 2012, and I used nursing time (and later, breast pump time) to do a LOT of reading.
One of the books I downloaded was The Hunger Games. The movie was releasing soon, and people were in a frenzy over it — over Jennifer Lawrence being cast as olive-skinned teenager Katniss, over the burning controversy of Team Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) or Team Gale (Liam Hemsworth), over its very existence — and I decided I should read the thing. That was an exceptionally good call on my part, I think. I would up reading the entire series (because The Hunger Games is really more the first volume for a story than the complete story) in a matter of days, and I’ve read it multiple times since. The whole thing, basically any time I get bored with whatever else I’m reading.
I felt prepared going in to the film, therefore. I felt well-versed in Katniss’s psyche, I had strong opinions on Peeta and Gale, and I’d cried huge sloppy tears when I read the part where Rue (Amandla Stenberg) died. I was ready. And for the most part, I was pleased with the final product. The Hunger Games is an adequate book-to-film adaptation. I wasn’t upset like those idiots crying foul at Rue and Thresh (Dayo Okeniyi) being black (I wouldn’t have been upset anyway, because why does it matter, but they are clearly not white in the book, so those people crying foul are even more ridiculous and awful than normal bigots) (I may be a cat bigot though, because I was seriously perturbed that Buttercup wasn’t remotely yellow — WHO WOULD NAME A BLACK AND WHITE CAT BUTTERCUP???), I thought Jennifer Lawrence did a great job, and for a narrative that takes place entirely in Katniss’s mind, the movie did fairly well bringing some of that out into dialogue and action. I wish Peeta had been taller, but honestly I bet Josh Hutcherson wishes that from time to time himself. (I wish Harry Potter was taller too. It’s just one of those things.) Mostly my complaints were small, though, and had to do with ways in which the story was conveyed on film that didn’t match the way they happened in the book, and that undermined specific emotional notes the story was trying to tell.
The one that struck me most pointedly was the point where Claudius (Toby Jones) announces that two victors will be crowned if the last two standing are from the same district. In the book, this gets a spontaneous shriek of Peeta’s name by Katniss, followed by the instantaneous and terrifying thought that she may have just given up her position. She’s being hunted, after all. But it perfectly expressed how much he’d been on her mind, and how much she cared for him (in her stilted, closed-off way) and was avoiding him for the sake of not having to fight him. In the movie, however, this moment comes as a calculated whisper. Katniss is not acting out of emotion but more out of the strategic advantage of having an ally, of putting on a good show, and it will lead her directly into the notion of pretending to love Peeta in order to get sponsorships. It’s a much more cold-hearted approach to Katniss, and one I don’t entirely approve of. Even if Katniss believes and tells herself that her affection for Peeta is all for show, it’s not entirely true in her heart, and in the book that’s quite clear. The somewhat flatter way movies have at their disposal to tell stories, however, makes it very difficult to convey those many layers of emotion and internal conflict, so you’re left with a somewhat unjustly characterized Katniss.
The other instance when this occurs is earlier in the film, when Peeta and Katniss are riding into the Capitol on their chariot for the Tributes Parade. In the scene, Katniss wrenches her hand away from Peeta when he grabs for it, and he convinces her that it would be a good publicity move. Once again, this undercuts the actual emotions of these two characters. In the book it is Katniss, not Peeta, who reaches for the other’s hand. And it’s not in order to look good to the masses, but out of fear and desperation. She needs something to hold onto. It’s indicative of real feelings of connection — even as confusing and muddled as they are for Katniss throughout the series — and vulnerability that are vital to the growth of both characters over the course of the franchise. Katniss reaches for Peeta for protection and security, and he will become a rock for her in many ways that Gale, with his thirst for action and retribution, is not. The moment also makes Peeta far more calculating than he’s ever portrayed in the books, almost as if he doesn’t truly love her but is encouraging her to play a part. Even with Peeta’s masterful strategic manipulation of certain parts of the Games (interviews with Caesar (Stanley Tucci) in particular, but also his early alliance with the Careers), his feelings for Katniss were always sincerely, truly felt, and it feels cheap to take away from it here.
That being said, most of the rest of the movie was a satisfying depiction of a book so many people loved. Elizabeth Banks plays beautifully against type as the uptight, persnickety, procedure-obsessed Effie, and Woody Harrelson is an excellent Haymitch, equal parts slobbering drunk and whip-smart survivor. And Catching Fire is one of the best adaptations of a book yet, so I kind of can’t wait to watch it again. On to the next!
Viable Option 