The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1--Movie Review

by Peter O'Connell

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1.Released: Nov. 21, 2014. Running time: 123 mins. Rated: PG 13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some disturbing images and thematic material.

The world of The Hunger Games is one both bleak and bizarre. It is a society divided into 12 districts, whose residents are exploited and oppressed by a brutal and decadent ruling class located in The Capitol, which is a kind of mix of Oz, ancient Rome, NYC, Las Vegas and Hollywood. The dystopian vision of this world was presented in three best-selling “young adult” novels by Suzanne Collins. Since 2012 this trilogy has been in the process of being translated to the screen in four films, of which Mockingjay—Part 1 is the third. Mockingjay—Part 2, the final entry in the series, will be released next year.

The Capitol rules the districts as much by media manipulation as by brute force. A key media event is the Hunger Games, a kind of televised gladiatorial combat involving both very high-tech devices controlled by the rulers and very low-tech items used by the combatants, two teenagers, one male and one female, from each district. The rulers, headed by the icy President Snow (Donald Sutherland), build up a big ballyhoo around the Games to disrupt and divide the districts. 

In the first two films in the series—The Hunger Games and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire—two of the combatants in the Games, 17-year-old Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and her love Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutvherson), turn the tables on the rulers, disrupting the Games and destroying the arena in which they take place. Katniss is rescued from the arena by anti-Snow elements, but Peeta is captured by Snow's forces.

In Mockingjay: Part 1 Katniss is taken to an underground rebel headquarters in District 13, which has otherwise been destroyed by Snow's forces. The rebel leader, President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore), tells Katniss that her actions in the arena have sparked riots and strikes against the Capitol. Coin believes that the revolt against the Capitol has to involve a media offensive on the part of the rebels in order to counter Snow's media. She asks Katniss to become the “Mockingjay,” the symbol of the rebellion.

Katniss is in a fragile state of mind and angry that the rebels did not also rescue Peeta, but after witnessing some of the atrocities perpetrated by Snow's forces, she agrees to Coin's proposal. Dressed in a manner reminiscent of Joan of Arc, Katniss makes speeches and songs that, when broadcast, spark successful attacks in the districts against Snow's forces. Then a raid on the Capitol rescues Peeta and brings him to Coin's facility. However, a shocking development occurs that almost costs Katniss her life and plunges her into near despair—and Peeta is responsible.

Mockingjay—Part 1 has a certain “stunted” quality stemming from the current Hollywood practice of splitting the final part of an epic into two separate films. Mockingjay: Part 1 also lacks the “over the top” production values of the first two films in the series. The film does, however, have its own strong points. The very talented (and very beauteous) Jennifer Lawrence conveys Katniss' mix of vulnerability and courage almost perfectly. Alma Coin, as portrayed by Julianne Moore, is an intriguing (in both senses of the word) character, and Josh Hutcherson makes a stronger impression as an actor than he has done previously. Also, focusing on the rebels' propaganda war rather than just one action scene after another, as so many films do, is a bold choice by the film's writers and its director (Francis Lawrence, no relation to Jennifer) that works out well. 

Moviegoers with the patience to sit through the film's very long list of closing credits will be treated to some fine music by composer James Newton Howard and a quite dramatic visual at the very end.