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The Hunger Games

May the odds be ever in your favour 

Year: 2012  Running Time: 142 minutes  Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Scope)  Certificate: - Under 12s only admitted with an adult  Subtitles: This film is not expected to be subtitled, though this cannot be guaranteed.  Directed by Gary Ross  Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson

Review:

Would you sacrifice your life for your little sister?

This is the choice 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen faces when her 12-year-old sister is selected to take part in the annual Hunger Games. Far from a friendly sporting competition, the Games are a brutal fight to the death, into which 24 are entered but only one can come out. Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence, X-Men: First Class, Winter’s Bone) volunteers her own life in the place of her sister’s and is swept from the poverty of District 12 to the opulence of the Capitol, before being thrust into the violence of the Arena; every one of her actions broadcast live to a whole nation.

Alongside Katniss, as she struggles to return home alive, are the gentle Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson); the 12-year-old Rue; the cunning Foxface; the monstrous Cato, who has trained for the Games for all his life, and 19 other competitors hungry for Katniss’ blood. The skills she has been forced to learn to feed her family will now be used to hunt entirely different fare.

The compelling and terrifying world created by Suzanne Collins in the best-selling books is finally brought to the big screen by director Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Sea Biscuit) in a bombastic and faithful retelling. Jennifer Lawrence is compelling as the hawk-eyed heroine, Katniss, comfortably leading a sublime cast. Capturing both the action of the book and the deeper, social commentary, the film explores not just the induced brutality of those forced to play the Games but the brutality of the society that forces them to play it; constantly questioning the morality of a world in which the rich have everything while the poor are forced to die for the rich’s entertainment, The Hunger Games is far more than your average blockbuster.

Clarissa Gillingham

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