Shaken and stirred

Rating: 9/10 (25 March 2012)

I am a film nut which means I am crazy for directors. Rarely do films rise above direction. Gary Ross is not Nolan or Fincher and they are not Scorsese or Kubrick.
In my life I can say that there are now three films that surpass the book that created them. "To Kill a Mockingbird" was better as a film. "On the Beach" was better as a film. I had concluded that Gregory Peck may have been responsible for this. Now I have to add "The Hunger Games" to that list. Odd thing is that I did it backwards. I saw the film Friday and read the book on Saturday.
It may be that the first person narrative was not as engaging to me as the film. I may be pathetic because I am old but I have followed Jennifer Lawrence since "Winter's Bone." I thought that she deserved the Academy Award then. I also know that the politics of that system allows great performers to be nominated over and over again and never win, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio. Kate Winslet had to be nominated for two great performances in one year to finally win. I just assumed, heck, Lawrence is just a kid and she will get her justice later.
I thought that she stole every scene in which she appeared in "X-Men First Class." That was a character driven cartoon with several terrific actors but even with McAvoy and Fassenbender, Lawrence shined.
To add to my native, aged prejudice, I am repulsed by the teen-trilogies. If "Lord of the Rings" and "Star Wars" and "The Emprire Strikes Back" offered the best, then that is where I drew my lines. I am a "Hurt Locker" "Tree of Life" kind of movie film fan.
Perhaps driven by lechery or recognition of talent, I rushed to "The Hunger Games."
I have been blown away. I don't know how Lawrence manages to communicate to a camera as she does. These are not Streep's "Sophie's Choice" medium shots. These are intimate and intense close shots of the twitch of the eye, the corner of the mouth.
The Dystopia runs deep but is passé to me. The world of Harlan Ellison was done best by Harlan Ellison. I have been closed to these revisions of his work.
The film, "The Hunger Games" has opened my skull.
I am not certain if President Snow is Kronos or Zeus but both kill their children. The Greek Mythology got one thing right, we kill our children. The manipulation of "hope," which was crystal clear in the film, did not seem central to the book. It was not Katniss's endurance or heroism, it was her humanity in the darkness of savagery that broke me to tears. It is the flickering flame of humanity that has moved me to write this.
I remain deeply moved. I can't get this out of my head. I am an old man who wishes our children are better than we are, not better off. The spiritual elation of the human heart found in children, embodied by Lawrence in her portrayal of Katniss, provided me with unexpected transcendence.