Adventures in the Talkies: The Hunger Games

It is rare that Kate is giddy about media. It is less rare that I am giddy about media. For example, here are a list of things that I can work up a bubbly-hearted froth about with very limited external prompting:

1.      The Avengers

2.      The new Bourne movie starring Jeremy Renner

3.      Jeremy Renner (I have been saying very gross things about him; I feel like I can't help myself...but I probably could help myself if I tried)

4.      Sherlock

5.      The Mayhem commercials starring Dean Winters

6.      Any of the shows I watch on TV, really

Kate, on the other hand, is fairly monogamous and chooses to commit a lot of her bubblehearts to one particular cause for a signficant period of time. One such cause is The Hunger Games. She talked me into reading them. She was psyched to see the movie, not only because she loved the books, but because Jennifer Lawrence was amazing in Winter's Bone and seemed like a perfect fit for Katniss. So it was fun to get to experience something with a friend where I wasn't the person being all goofy and dorked out.

So we went to a noon show yesterday, and I got my elbow squeezed at least twice as we waded through commercials and trailers. And it was totally worthy of two elbow squeezes, because it was a terrific movie. Gary Ross did a great job of what John Carter consistently failed at and showed instead of told: showed that despite Katniss and her family living a hard-scrabble life that there was strength and love at the center of their daily interactions; showed her friendship with Gale; showed that Katniss was, at times, panicked and brave and serious and unintentionally funny and intentionally funny and sharp and smart; showed her building relationships with Haymitch and Effie and Cinna--though Kate was right, the stuff with her style team seemed much depleted from the book--and then Peeta and Rue (seriously, the part of the book and the part of the movie that gave me that heart-run-over-by-a-mower feelings is always Rue); showed the far-reaching implications of what Katniss's brief moments of defiance mean to the oppressed and why it tips the precarious balance of power...


It was directed well, tight and fast-moving, but not without emotion. It reminded me that one of the best moments in Big (which Gary Ross scripted...so I hope he was semi-responsible for this) was the drawn-out moment of seeing "big" Josh react to being in the scary hotel all alone, so that in the midst of a fantasy story, you felt for the kid at the heart of all the improbability. And as far as literary adaptations go, Kate made the observation that some of the choices made to delete or add or change chronology ultimately made sense. I know there are fans who want to see the book cover-to-cover, but as someone who saw that happen in the Timothy Dalton version of Jane Eyre, it isn't always what it's cracked up to be: sometimes literary pacing and cinematic pacing are two whooooooooooolly different things.

Kate and I spent some small portion of our post-movie conversation talking about Jennifer Lawrence. Boy, Jennifer Lawrence is pretty, and her body is hecka slammin'. Clearly that is not at all the point of the story, but it feels like a lie if you don't recognize that she's speckled in beauty marks like Rachel McAdams, only she's tall like an Amazon, with curves and curves and legs. She's put in some great costumes, but she never looks more beautiful than when she is in her numbered form-fitting training suit when she heads in to shoot an arrow at Seneca Crane. She walks towards the camera, and it's just pow!, y'know?

I feel like all the casting was wonderful, from the big characters to the one-off tributes who die brutally in the first charge to the Cornucopia. I have a particular soft spot for Elizabeth Banks, and she was so spot-on as Effie, big and vacuous and funny without crushing entire sets with her jaw or overdoing it, that I feel like she must have some kind of secret kernel of affection for the character (she certainly has been Tweeterpating as Effie a lot).

In conclusion: it seems cruel that Catching Fire isn't already finished and ready to debut next weekend. Also, watch the comments for Kate to let me know if I forgot/missed anything.

And for those who like the Coming Attractions junk, the trailers were okayish: Breaking Dawn pt. 2 (guys, now I’m spoiled forever for the books! Bella Swan becomes Die Vampira?), What To Expect When You're Expecting (cleverly repackaged in this trailer as a movie largely focused on a dad group made up of Rob Huebel, Thomas Lennon, and Chris Rock), Snow White and the Huntsmen (it looks bonkers and sort of badass and made up for the fact that I had to see Kristen Stewart hunting a deer, good Lord, people enjoy those movies? Seriously? Not with RiffTrax, as God intended?), and Lordy Lou, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (my favorite non-Hunger Games moment of the afternoon was the collective laughter of young and old when that title hit the screen... I appreciate that the movie is taking itself seriously, but...I saw that movie, and it was called Priest, and the best part about Priest was that the priest was not Abraham Lincoln... and isn't that book meant to be all wokka wokka like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? Who cares. I don't. No thanks. No thanks, even if Dominic Cooper is fun. Also: Dark Shadows can go straight to Hell. God damn it, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, why do you make me regret ever drawing breath and taking back my initial dislike of Big Fish?)