Mockingjay Part 1 Review: A Darker, Quieter Hunger Games

Mockingjay Part 1 review: the Hunger Games turns to war

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 reached U.S. theaters on November 21, 2014, and it is the quietest and most serious film in the series. Francis Lawrence directed it from a screenplay by Peter Craig and Danny Strong, based on the first half of Suzanne Collins's 2010 novel. It runs 123 minutes, and almost none of them take place in an arena.

Mockingjay is one of those books that divides readers, much like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban or A Feast for Crows, and Mockingjay Part 1 inherits the argument. A film about propaganda, grief and the machinery of revolution is not the one many viewers came for. This Mockingjay Part 1 review looks at what the film does well and where the two-part split costs it.

What happens in Mockingjay Part 1

After barely surviving her second trip to the Games in as many years, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) blows the arena to pieces and wakes up in District 13, an underground base believed to have been destroyed. District 12 is in ruins and Peeta is in the Capitol's hands. President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) asks Katniss to become the Mockingjay, the symbol of the revolution, and the more diplomatic Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) helps to shape that image. Hoffman died on February 2, 2014, after completing most of his scenes, so this is one of his final screen performances.

Much of the film follows her around the districts as she films propaganda spots, known as propos, meant to unite the workers. After seeing Peeta used on state television, she agrees to the role, and her films inspire uprisings. The Capitol retaliates with airstrikes. Coin's forces later rescue Peeta and other captured victors, and Peeta returns brainwashed and ready to try to kill Katniss. The film ends with Coin announcing that the next target is District 2.

A darker film, and a slower one

It seems odd to call this the darkest entry when the earlier films featured teenagers killing each other, rampaging monkeys and hallucinogenic wasps, but it is. Revolution here is not glorified. The deaths of innocents are constant, and the director does not hold back in showing the grit of war. He also does not shy away from showing the cost of fighting against people as well as a landscape.

The propaganda angle is the film's most interesting idea. A symbol, the story argues, is built, filmed and edited, and Katniss is uneasy about being made into one. Plutarch and Coin want footage that will move people, and the film lets viewers watch the machinery behind the image. It is a thoughtful place to take a franchise that started as an adventure, and it explains why so much of the runtime is spent in rooms instead of arenas.

There is little action to speak of. Outside of two scenes in the second half, the film saves its excitement for the final ten minutes. Viewers looking for a racing pulse should wait for Part 2. Those who want to understand Katniss's mental state, and the irony of life in District 13, will find the film rewarding.

Handheld camera work returns after a steadier second film, which will bother some viewers more than others. Production ran from September 2013 to June 2014, with locations including Atlanta, Paris and Berlin, and the film looks more like a war drama than a spectacle because of it.

Jennifer Lawrence carries it

No one conveys the mix of fear, anger, sadness and confusion better than Lawrence. Without her, the film would be mediocre at best. She is at her strongest in the emotional moments, such as the first time Katniss sees Peeta on Capitol TV and whispers that he is alive, and the scene at the tribute center where she cries against Haymitch's chest and asks whether she has just lost both of them. The moment she sees the bodies in District 12 for the first time is as powerful.

Lawrence also performs "The Hanging Tree" in the film, and according to Wikipedia the song reached number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States.

Who plays whom in Mockingjay Part 1

Where Mockingjay Part 1 falters

Most of the film's problems center on Gale, played by Liam Hemsworth. In the novel, Gale grows angrier and more distant after living through the destruction of District 12, which commits him to the rebellion even more than before. The film reduces him to a jealous, petulant presence, upset that Katniss is worried about Peeta. His distance from her happens so fast, with so little explanation, that viewers who have not read the book may not understand it, or Katniss's final decision. The pairing of Hemsworth and Lawrence also strikes many viewers as lacking the chemistry the story needs.

Peeta is better served. Josh Hutcherson makes his decline convincing, from the makeup and weight loss that mark each appearance on Capitol TV to his confusion when the Capitol says Katniss has become the Mockingjay. By the end, his final state is heartbreaking for Katniss and for anyone on Team Peeta, and the performance makes a strong case that Hutcherson was perfectly cast.

Haymitch and Effie have minor roles, and they carry them with skill. They provide brief moments of levity that lift the weight of the world for a few seconds at a time, though the film could have used more of them. Moore's Coin is more distant than stern, which weakens some of her scenes with Katniss and Plutarch. Sam Claflin's Finnick deserves more screen time than he gets.

A few small moments fall flat, among them an awkward video exchange between Katniss and President Snow and the plot point that nearly gets Katniss and Gale killed because Prim goes back for her cat. The second can be read as sweet, since Prim is still a young girl who puts others first, or as careless, since she nearly endangers the symbol of the rebellion.

The two-part problem

The biggest question is whether the film needed to exist at all. Lionsgate announced in July 2012 that the novel would be divided into two films, and splitting a book often feels like a money grab. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is the best defense of the practice: understated, emotional and focused on the mental strain of facing a great enemy.

Mockingjay Part 1 aims for something similar and mostly gets there. It is not a bad film. It is just not strictly necessary, since a longer final installment could have included its key events. For the full effect, watch it just before Part 2.

Women on screen

One strength is the way it treats female characters. Women are present in large numbers, fully drawn, appropriately dressed and given relevant roles and intelligence. It is a rarer thing in a blockbuster than it should be.

Verdict on Mockingjay Part 1

Critics broadly agreed with that mix of praise and frustration. According to Wikipedia, Rotten Tomatoes lists 70 percent approval from 302 reviews, with reviewers praising Lawrence and the political subtext while criticizing the pacing, the limited action and the decision to split the novel.

The practical advice is simple. If you love the books, or if you want the political side of the story, Mockingjay Part 1 is a satisfying, if sober, chapter. If you want arena spectacle, skip it and wait for Part 2. Either way, the film is a watchable one because its stars make you want to watch them.

The film is dedicated to Philip Seymour Hoffman. His Plutarch, affable and a little too clever, is one of the more rewarding supporting turns, and watching him sell the idea of the Mockingjay is one of the reasons the propaganda scenes work.

Mockingjay – Part 2 followed in November 2015, which gives the first half its purpose as a setup. Seen as the opening of a two-part finish, it does its job; seen alone, it asks for patience.

Fans of the books will find much to argue about, and that argument is part of the film's identity.

Sources

• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, Wikipedia — cast, crew and release details