Chris At The Pictures

Having failed to keep her head down and having escaped the second round of the Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and her allies hunker down in the bowels of District 13, planning their revolution to topple the capitol, under the leadership of President Coin (Julianne Moore). With her home destroyed and fellow games-survivor Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) behind enemy lines, Katniss must decide whether or not to stand as the symbol of the revolution.

What gives Mockingjay Part 1 a slight edge over its predecessor is that the repetitive element of going back into the games is dropped and the story is able to move into a new direction, and it’s very impressive how the defiant spirit is alive and tangible now the oppressive aura of the games has lifted. With the exception of Philip Seymour Hoffman as Heavensbee (who spends the film slyly grinning from the side-lines as everything falls into place), everyone appears to be building towards something, ready to drop everything and give their life for the cause.

Jennifer Lawrence is spectacular, managing to still find new things to do with her role and proving to everyone why she remains the lauded face of the modern film star. The array of supporting cast all shine, notably Elizabeth Banks as Effie – who arguably is given greater room to develop than anyone else – and Sam Claflin as pretty-boy turned heartbroken rebel Finnick. Even the Josh Hutcherson problem of the previous films (that problem being that he couldn’t act his way out of a paper bag) is solved by the story itself not needing him very much.

Something I find admirable about this film in comparison to the previous movies is that – for what is essentially a teen action movie – it spends a majority of its time building characters, investing time in the unravelling of the plot and keeping the audience engrossed in the story, and even when the action sequences rear their head the CG and explosions are handled just as carefully and just as involving as the rest, even if the final set-piece is all over the shop.

Mockingjay is also a very important note in the Hunger Games series musically: James Newton Howard is finally given room to breathe outside the games arena, providing a powerful soundtrack that really deserves more attention than the ‘soundtrack’ currently topping the charts (basically a bunch of songs with the poster plastered over the album cover). There is also a central set piece involving a love song which really harkens back (albeit in a more populist form) to the punk-rock idea of music as a weapon of the revolution, to not only speak out against the oppressors but to belt out your dissatisfaction from the rooftops.

Willing to go to dark places, unafraid of injecting a little humour and unashamed when it comes to favouring emotions over effects, Mockingjay Part 1 may be laden with a few too many rousing speeches and a stumbling final act but it reaches furiously for the heights of its predecessor and falls but a degree short. If this is the opening salvo, fans and audiences alike have much to look forward to in the final chapter.

★★★★☆

The central performance from Philip Seymour Hoffman is staggering, a rare case of an actor totally owning the screen. Critics and audiences speak constantly of an actor appearing to be ‘world-weary’, but few ever live up to that. Not so with Hoffman. With a cigarette forever dangling from his lips and a hipflask near to hand, his bedraggled and unshaven form is a weighty presence that cannot fail to draw the eye. As upsetting as it may be to admit, Hoffman’s internal, off-screen problems appear only to enhance his performance.

Though they may pale slightly in comparison to the leading powerhouse, the supporting cast are still watchable. Willem Dafoe takes a break from villainous caricatures and is all the better for it as a put-upon businessman and Grigoriy Bobrygin is utterly believable as the wayward Islamist lost not only in a foreign land but also internally. It’s good to see Rachel McAdams back in a major supporting role, although it is a shame to see the talented Daniel Brühl relegated to little more than a background appearance. All cast members who are required to don a German accent manage to keep it mostly in check, though I can’t speak for the accuracy of those which are Hamburg-specific.

The plot unfolds slowly and deliberately, appearing at first to be heading in one direction but then taking a wild yet usually subtly executed turn. Unlike the previous Le Carré adaptation Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, where everything is in the smallest of details (a raised eyebrow, a nervous glance), this film wears its schemes and double-crosses with sour grimaces or frustrated swearing. The technological element also feels very contemporary, hidden cameras and surveillance vans taking the place of bugged lamps or hidden envelopes.

The functional cinematography is pitched just right; the steel and concrete architecture and the iron-grey skies of Hamburg a perfect match for the unfeeling, morally grey area that Bachmann and his associates inhabit. This is not a film about heroes and villains, but about those in-between, struggling to decide between the lesser of many evils and attempting compromise despite less than favourable results, results which more often than not are frustrating and ultimately unfair.

A Most Wanted Man is a contemporary war-on-terror thriller that, despite its pulpy origins, is a story entirely owned not by the director or the writer, but Philip Seymour Hoffman. As a swansong to a remarkable film career – and indeed a troubled life – I cannot imagine anything better suited: it’s dark, bitter, brooding and powerful.

4.5 stars