Blockbuster films “The
Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1” and “Gone Girl” share little in common other
than book source female authors, respectively, Suzanne Collins and Gillian Flynn.
But, damn, these movies do show the difference of a bloated, ill-advised screen
adaptation (that “Part 1” is a millstone) and another adaptation that takes the
meat and bones of its source, cut the fat, and creates a raging animal that leaves
one spooked, rattled, and –- most importantly –- wanting more.
(Collins helped
adapt her story, with others, Flynn takes sole credit.)
If you’re smart enough
to be on the Web, you know the basics of each film. “Mockingjay” comes from the
third and final book in a wildly popular series about teen Katniss (Jennifer
Lawrence) as she struggles against a fascist future America where lives of the
poor are held as sport to the rich. War is brewing.
“Girl” follows a He Said,
She Said format as a once good marriage has turned toxic and maybe deadly. The
wife has gone missing, and the husband has “killer” inscribed on his scumbag forehead.
The novel “Mockingjay” clocks in under 400 pages, and as with all of Collins’
books, reads fast. No stops or fluff. Fewer pages means less work to cut from
page to screen. But success breeds greed.
After the great sequel “CatchingFire” –- with its devastating emotional punches, great action and characters,
and a cliffhanger ending –- became a smash hit even over its predecessor, watching
this new film is a surprisingly dull overlong drudge.
It’s half a real movie
with dozens of outtakes crammed in. It makes the mistake of sidelining Katniss
for nearly two hours of weeping and thumb-twiddling as she lets the boys take
over. Ouch.
The “Games” books and films have excelled IMHO over the awful, inept, feminism-hating “Twilight” series
because Katniss has no time for romance or weeping, because she is too busy being
the protector of her family. Very little of her
is here. The studio now just sees dollars, and a dark, thrilling dystopian tale
of and for youth is stretched too thin.
We get scenes repeated -– Katniss stands
over war rubble and charred bodies no less than five time, and two of those in
the same exact location, where she ransacks, twice now, her ruined home for
supplies.
As the focus was nearly entirely on or about Katniss in previous
films, we know grow our side-character roster, and God bless Philip Seymour
Hoffman -– I miss him dearly –- most of his scenes are unneeded, with no need to
watch him talking to Katniss’ PR handler (Elizabeth Perkins).
Near the end,
Katniss stands in a control room watching from afar as men go into battle, and
she watches and watches, and spends what might be 10 minutes repeating, “Are
you there?,” to the evil dictator who also is watching the rescue from afar,
President Snow (Donald Sutherland). Much more happens and I won’t spoil a drop
for those unfamiliar with the book, but just sitting there knowing we have
another two hours of film to watch in what should have been a tight,
relentless, three-hour film exhausts me.
“Part 1” wants to sell itself as drums
of war, but that pounding is all cash registers clinking, a move the
wealth-crazed, Ayn-Rand-loving villains of this tale might ironically approve.
The heroes? Katniss, and the haunted veteran played by Woody Harrelson? They
would mutter, “I don’t have time for this.”
“Gone Girl” –- even at two and half
hours –- knows the best always leave you wanting more, be it book, film, or
food. Flynn’s book was a helluva read, bouncing back for 400-plus pages between
man and wife as they delve into their disintegrating marriage, he speaking in
the present day after the wife goes missing and police and media come calling
and ravaging; her from the past, in diary entries, sliding from happiness to
despair.
That’s three quarters of the film, until Flynn and director David
Fincher don’t just turn the car around, they crash it wheels up in icy muck,
and watch it -– and us -– sink and freeze. Part of the genius in “Girl” is the
casting, with American sweetheart Ben Affleck as the husband and relative
unknown actress Rosamund Pike (“Jack Reacher”) as the wife.
Affleck’s Nick Dunne
is a former NYC journalist turned bar owner, back in his Missouri sticks
childhood home with a dead mom, a senile father, and a twin sister, and many
dark secrets. His shirt always untucked, blue jeans under a gut, and a blank
face, he is cold and aloof, so much to the point that the police starting
wrinkling their eyebrows. Hard. Especially after the diary of the wife, Amy, is
uncovered. Its most recent pages purging tales of abuse.
Amy was raised a New
Yorker and the child of parents who mined their daughter’s youth for books,
children’s book that always seemed one step ahead of their own girl, one punch
above perfect. “Amazing Amy” the book series was called. How can anyone stand
to strive to be amazing, to live up to fiction? I will stop there.
Fincher
again has made a cold, daring film that cuts right to the dark pit of the soul,
that little black ball rolled up deep inside, found in “The Game” and “Fight
Club.”
Flynn adapted her own book, gutting sections, condensing others, and adding
new ribbons of dark blood toward the end. Spoilers? Harsh drama and part sick satire,
“Gone” is a nasty trip through marriage and media, and personality, how people
–- all of us -- perform in public, for one’s spouse or family, and even to ourselves,
striving to meet expectation or get that life –- that perfect life -– we know we
saw on TV, or dream about, or read about once.
Like that book series. It’s toxic.
(How harmful was a show like “Leave It to Beaver” to read, struggling American
families?) There are great moments of crushing satire and criticism of the
media that bounce the film along and ring true in our age where white wealthy
women disappearing is national news, but not so for anyone of color, or low
income.
Tyler Perry plays the part of a sleaze lawyer who comes to
Nick’s “rescue,” and he brings a dynamic, comedic charge to the film that saves
it from going too dark, and he’s in a magical feat, our way into the film.
This
is a film to watch and talk about over booze and food, not read about. See it
for no other reason than Affleck -- a successful director and new Batman -- crushing his role as an ugly man impossible to
hate. He is a marvel to behold, as is the amazing Pike.
Yes, “Mockingjay” will make tons more money and get more press, but
“Gone” is the film that stays the course. Unwavering.
Mockingjay: B- Gone: A-
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