The Hunger Games: Mockingjay 2

DIRECTOR:  Francis Lawrence  LEAD CAST: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman  PRODUCERS: Nina Jacobson, Jon Kilik  SUPERVISING ART DIRECTORS: David Sheunemnn, Stefan Speth, Dan Webster  ADAPTATION: Suzanne Collins (from her novel “Mockingjay”)   SCREENPLAY: Peter Craig, Danny Strong  FILM EDITORS: Alan Edward Bell, Mark Yoshikawa  MUSIC: James Newton Howard  GENRE: Adventure, Science Fiction  CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jo Willems  PRODUCTION MANAGER:  Lucy Appleby  PRODUCTION DESIGN: Philip Messina  COSTUME DESIGNERS: Kurt and Bart  PRODUCTION COMPANIES: Color Force, Lionsgate, Studio Babelsberg (co-production)  DISTRIBUTORS: Lionsgate  FILMING LOCATIONS:  13 locations in Germany, USA and France   LANGUAGE:  English RUNNING TIME: 137 minutes

Technical assessment:  4

Moral assessment:  3

CINEMA rating:  V14

            Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), both a victor in and subverter of Panem’s Hunger Games, is now a symbol of the revolution whom rebel president Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) and power broker Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) want to use strictly as a poster girl.   Stubborn freedom-fighter Katniss, however, has her own agenda, and that includes killing President Snow (Donald Sutherland]) to end once and for all the senseless deaths of so many young people.  Forming a team of rag-tag soldiers that include closest friends Gale (Liam Hemsworth), Finnick (Sam Claflin), and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), she goes off on a mission, risking their lives through a booby-trapped war to liberate the citizens of Panem.  The final confrontation between Katniss and Snow, presided over by Coin, is an electrifying game-changer.

The Hunger Games is not exempted from the fad of chopping into “parts” the movie adaptations of popular books.  Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hobbit—they have all stretched their heroes’ exploits to prolong box office earning power, and yet the fans wait.  After Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, which, judging from its relatively weak performance at the tills, must have been a forgettable movie that tested the patience of fans, Mockingjay Part 2 revs up with more of the thrills that have made the Hunger Games series the prototype of dystopia flicks for young adults (Divergent, et al.).  The strong cast monumentally contributes to the realism of the Hunger Games franchise—how can it go wrong with a leonine Sutherland, a steely Moore, a sly Hoffman?  And, of course, the winner Lawrence who can equally sell with aplomb parts calling for either vulnerability or verve.  In Mockingjay 2 the stars’ solid performances, interwoven with heart-stopping CGI, make for a fitting finale to a story that capitalizes on man’s inhumanity to man.

            It’s surprising that a number of film critics are disappointed with the film’s ending, calling it “sappy” and an anti-climactic conclusion to an adrenalin-packed series that promised so much by way of action and heroism.  Their cynical remarks remind us of biblical Israel waiting for a savior who would topple down the ruling elite with its own brand of kingship, but is instead given a Jesus Christ.  CINEMA thinks the ending is actually a statement that magnifies the upbeat message of the whole story: enough is enough. Murder as spectator sport is sub-human.  At least, when beasts kill, it is to survive, but in Panem, the poor young people are robbed of choice and must kill in order to live—as entertainment for the elite.  So Mockingjay mocks the elite; it cries, “Give humanity a chance.”  What’s wrong with wanting to dump violence to start afresh?  Choose life, not death. Arrows that used to kill people are also useful for hunting fowl for the dinner table—is that against the law?  “Turn your swords into ploughs and your spears into pruning hooks.”  Maybe the cynics’ eyes have grown to love the Hunger Games’ darkness that the sunlight-dappled scenery blinds them.  Or maybe after falling in love with the couture of Panem’s stylish crowd, they’re simply horrified by Katniss’ drastic costume change.  Whatever, CINEMA wouldn’t have wanted the ending any other way.  

Silver Linings Playbook

CAST: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Rober de Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker, Anupam Kher  DIRECTOR: David O Russell  SCREENWRITER:  David O. Russell  PRODUCER: Bruce Cohen, Donna Gigliotti  EDITOR: Jay Cassidy, Crispin Stuthers   MUSICAL DIRECTOR:  Danny Elfman  GENRE:  Romantic Comedy-Drama  CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Masanobu Takayanagi  RUNNING TIME:  122 minutes  DISTRIBUTOR:  Weinstein Company  LOCATION:  United States

Technical assessment:   4

Moral Assessment:   3

CINEMA rating:   V 14

MTRCB rating:  R 13

Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper) is released from a Baltimore psychiatric hospital on the insistence of his mother Dolores (Jacki Weaver) who does not like him getting used to the hospital’s routine life.  He was committed by court order to the mental hospital after he beat up a man he had caught in the shower with his wife Nikki (Brea Bee), a teacher at a local high school.  Pat moves in with his parents, to the delight of his father Pat Sr. (Robert de Niro) who takes it as an opportunity to bond with his son.  Stubbornly refusing medication, Pat resolves to rebuild himself by getting in tip top physical shape and enriching his mind by reading all the books Nikki assigns to her students.  He is determined to win her back despite a retraining order barring him from coming within 500 feet of Nikki.  Pat soon meets another psychiatric case, young widow Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), who volunteers to deliver Pat’s letters to Nikki if Pat would be her partner in a local dance contest.

Two things make a major push for Silver Linings Playbook: the story and the actors.  All else are there in support of these two.  The story is part factual, part fantasy, but is told in a way that makes the film bitingly real.  The story needs no eye candy, no CGI, just the flesh and blood realism of a middleclass neighborhood in Philadelphia, acted out like the actors were born and raised in that milieu and were in fact telling their true story.  Brad Cooper is a revelation here, playing a character so remote from his usual roles and giving it incredible depth.  Jennifer Lawrence—well, the Oscar speaks of the promise the 22-year old holds as a major talent.  (Somehow her face is perfect for the intense characters she’s given, remember Hunger Games).  Here her character is so fierce she can steal the thunder from de Niro, who, by the way, delivers classic de Niro as Pat Sr. 

Silver Linings Playbook gives hope, as the proverbial silver lining behind the dark clouds.  It’s an optimistic movie that treats mental illness with  respect, and demonstrates how persons with neuroses may rise above their situation.  The keyword is “Excelsior” (Latin for “ever upward”) which subtly permeates the day to day life of ordinary people in an ordinary neighborhood.  Not overtly religious, the characters nonetheless hope and believe—Pat himself, a bi-polar patient, says “There is a reason for everything that  happens.”   The Solitano home offers clues to the inhabitants’ Christian faith but the father engages in rituals—something like a home-brewed feng shui—that’s supposed to bring him luck at betting on the Philadelphia Eagles.  In the end, one may indeed wonder how relevant medicine is when people who sincerely work for what they want, do not get what they want, but get something better instead.  Then you realize, the silver lining is but a proof of the presence behind the clouds of a light-giving, life-giving Sun.