The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Last Friday I went to see The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. A female blood relative of mine, who is not my mother or daughter, joined me. She even kindly stopped at my house and picked me up. About halfway there, it became clear to us both that she was not sure what we were going to see.

She thought she was going to see Dallas Buyers’ Club. Not that she really cared, she just wanted to go to a Friday movie with me. I spent the rest of the drive explaining the Hunger Games book series and what happened in the first movie. Coming in cold, I wondered what she would think of it.

I, on the other hand, was rather a fan of The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. I was worried about how the books would translate to film, since the point of the violence in the book is to point out how horrible violence really is, and how much it affects those who are victims or participants in it. I didn’t want the audience to be one more spectator entertained by the horror. For the most part, I think the movies have held to that perspective, which I appreciate.

If you liked the first movie, you will love the second. Jennifer Lawrence is still the perfect Katniss, and the movie adheres to the themes of the book very closely. The bizarre excess of citizens in the Capital is a jarring foil for the poverty and hunger in the outer districts. Katniss’s development from a falsely loveable tribute into a national symbol for revolution is mostly believable, and she retains the taciturn, fiercely private nature that is introduced in the beginning of the series.

While it’s great to see that Katniss is a strong woman, it is also refreshing that the strong hero of a movie is beset with uncertainty, not as bold and brave as everyone believes, and dependent upon other people to point out to her what she can’t see herself. She is no shrinking violet, but she has her own weaknesses, which makes her a much more real character.

Josh Hutcherson does a fine job as the gentle, pining Peeta; my daughter and I were Team Gale throughout the first two books, and Liam Hemsworth as Gale just serves to reinforce that loyalty. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the new Gamemaker, Plutarch. He must have been a major score for the casting department, and he’s the perfect choice. He is a natural at roles that leave viewers ambivalent, wondering whether he is a good guy or the incarnation of evil itself.

If my unnamed female relative, who is not my second sister, was uncertain about what she was getting into, in the end she enjoyed the movie very much. There were a lot of gasps and caught breath going on in the seat next to me, and when the story concluded—as expected by fans of the book—inconclusively, she said “What? That’s it?” She’ll either be reading the books soon, or I can plan to see her at the showing of the third film.

Another friend joined us for the movie, and she had also been at my church book club the night before. At our meeting we were discussing Nothing to Envy, a book about life in North Korea. The people of this country are so oppressed, so subject to ideological brainwashing, and so abused. If you love anyone, you are subject to the threat of their punishment in response to your own disobedience, which makes it very difficult for anyone to rebel. It felt like I was watching the sci-fi version of North Korea.

But about that third film. I don’t know. I’m not sure I can handle the visual version of that story. But the draw to see Jennifer Lawrence reprise the role one more time may be more than I can resist. I highly recommend it with to those who are familiar with and ready the violent nature of the story. But I still won’t be letting my 10-year-old see it.