May the Odds be Ever in Your Favor.

However many years in the however distant future, North America has evolved (or devolved?) into the world of Panem, a society made up of 12 Districts ruled by a morally corrupt sadistic government based out of a place called simply The Capitol. To keep status quo, each year the Capitol organizes a televised event in which children fight to the death in an elaborately designed landscape arena. This event is known, of course, as “The Hunger Games.” Each District must offer up two “tributes,” a male and female between the ages of 12 and 18, to participate in the games. As our heroine, Katniss Everdeen, succinctly describes, “There are 24 of us. Only one comes out.”

Gary Ross’s film adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ beloved book succeeds on almost all counts, in some cases exceeding expectations. It is clear from the first several frames that Ross expects his audience to understand the difference between reading about brutal violence on the page and seeing it on a big screen. When we are reading through the voice of Katniss Everdeen, it is easy to forget just how young these competitors are. However, in the film, when the horn blows for the games to begin and the audience is launched into a frenzied (eerily un-scored) montage of absolute carnage, we are reminded that this is nothing short of a horrific, disturbing ordeal in which there truly are no winners.

Jennifer Lawrence is commendable in her portrayal of District 12’s tribute, Katniss Everdeen. With a character who, in the novel often verges on tedium, Lawrence chooses to highlight Katniss’s discomfort with her sudden fame, making her both likable and mysterious. As her counterpart in the games and would-be love interest, Josh Hutcherson is sweet but supremely capable as Peeta Mellark. Peeta is a character who could easily be given the “boy next door” treatment, but Hutcherson gives him a pragmatism and honesty that present him as a young man who understands there is more at stake than his life, and that his identity is the one thing he really can’t afford to lose. Whether it’s for show or for real, the chemistry between Lawrence and Hutcherson gives the film its heart.

The story has its obvious commentary on 21st Century media. Ross takes this and runs with it to great effect. The entire film is essentially shot like a reality TV show, relying heavily on the use of hand-held cameras and staggered close-ups, making the audience feel a part of the crowd watching the games themselves (though not in an accusatory sense, per se). Perhaps it was my imagination, but throughout the film there even seemed to be winks at its dystopian science fiction predecessors, with certain designs uncannily evoking Truffaut’s 1966 adaptation of Fahrenheit 451. One thing is for sure, Gary Ross has achieved a rare feat: creating a film that is at once both a mega-blockbuster as well as a sophisticated piece of filmmaking.