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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Hunger Games satisfies on many levels

By: Alison Gillmor

Posted: 04/21/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Jennifer Lawrence (POSTMEDIA)

Box office numbers and critics' reviews often seem to be telling different stories. The box office manages to maintain a lofty indifference to these disagreements, but critics can get a bit tetchy.

The Hunger Games is currently devouring box-office records. Its $155-million opening weekend numbers are the best for a non-sequel and the best ever for a March release. And it has kept its first-place slot for four straight weeks. I wouldn't make a case for The Hunger Games being a work of greatness -- I thought it was a sturdy, if stolid adaptation of the book -- but I'm chuffed that it's making money. And here's why.

The night before The Hunger Games opened in Winnipeg, there was a preview screening for ticket winners. Crazy-excited ticket winners. There were people lined up three hours early, bonding over book quotations, mockingjay pins and shared crushes on Lenny Kravitz. In an era where the movie-going experience has become devalued, it was swell to see some kids sharing a communal big-screen high.
It's great that a female-focused film is doing boffo box office, and especially great that it's smashing those all-important opening-weekend numbers. Lady blockbusters are rare, and even the certified hits like My Big Fat Greek Wedding usually need a gradual roll-out as the film gathers word-of-mouth. Unfortunately, this only confirms Hollywood's prejudice that female movie viewing is like female sexuality -- slow to warm up and ultimately inscrutable. The Hunger Games' big, tough, upfront ticket sales really talk.
Katniss Everdeen, played with steady conviction by Jennifer Lawrence, is a killer female action star. Even better, she's a killer female action star who doesn't seem to find it practical to fight for her life while wearing a lace bustier or a cheerleader outfit (Like those poor girls in Suckerpunch, who always look like they might catch cold.) Even better-er, boys seem to like Katniss anyway, bucking the studios' deeply held belief that males can't "cross-identify" with female protagonists.
The Hunger Games gives us girl power without over-compensating girliness. She's singleminded, our Katniss, and in her life-and-death showdown in the arena, she tends to view romance as a dangerous distraction. Hell, Katniss doesn't even like clothes. Good luck finding outfits for that new Katniss Everdeen Barbie doll.
Unlike the soundtracks of most teen-oriented movies, which involve boy-band songs and crap hip-hop, the music for The Hunger Games was produced by T-Bone Burnett. The man behind the soundtracks of O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Crazy Heart, he manages to squeeze in a couple of rootsy numbers meant to call up the Depression-era Appalachian atmosphere of District 12 . This movie might just introduce the under-16 crowd to mandolins and pedal steel guitars.

Other reasons to celebrate? The Hunger Games is not a Michael Bay movie, it's not a sequel, it's not a remake of a Gen X TV show. It doesn't involve mopey vampires or Adam Sandler in a dress. It's not in 3-D.

May the box-office odds be ever in its favour.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 21, 2012 E3

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