The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (12A) ***
Katniss and the rest of the rebel movement power up to overthrow their corrupt government for once and for all.
The Hunger Games series has been one of the strongest young adult novel adaptations put forward by Hollywood - but this chapter suffers from being broken into two instalments.
We’re back in Panem, the future-earth consisting of the wealthy and powerful Capitol led by President Snow (Donald Sutherland). This regime oversees and oppresses the twelve other numbered districts which are in various states of poverty and chaos.
Every year, young people are chosen to take part in the Games - a death match shown on live TV - though events at the end of the second film have put paid to that practice.
Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) has defied the Capitol to become a poster girl - The Mockinjay - for a revolutionary movement, led by President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore).
The power of media manipulation is a big feature in the film as Katniss’s image is used to rouse the masses the the hands of Plutarch Heavensbee (the late Philip Seymour Hoffman).
Mockingjay is every bit as solid, dramatic and well acted as the first two movies in the series but there is no denying that it suffers from being split in two.
The Suzanne Collins book on which it is based is no longer than the other two books and the decision of the studio to cash in by squeezing two movies out of it may please fans but it affects the quality of the film.
Lawrence persists in showing us why she’s become the go-to young star for Hollywood casting agents and the quality in support shows. But the movie can never quite shake off the feeling it’s a set-up for the finale rather than a movie in its own right.
The Homesman (15A) ***
When three women driven by harsh conditions lost their sanity, two Westerners are tasked with taking them on a long journey to a better life.
Hilary Swank, a double Oscar winner for previous performances in Million Dollar Baby and Boys Don’t Cry, is superb in this grim, slow-moving drama.
Swank is Mary Bee Cuddy, an unmarried woman who has made a home for herself in a small farming community in Nebraska.
But life on the Frontier is harsh and when three women in the community fall foul of mental illness for various reasons, she volunteers to bring them to safety at the home of a religious minister.
But when she realises just how long and perilous the journey by covered wagon will be, she employs a low-life drifter (Tommy Lee Jones, who also directs) to accompany her - and help her keep the women safe and under control.
As the subject matter implies, this story is heavy going at times. But payback comes in the form of strong storytelling and great performances from the two leads - especially Swank, exceptional as a woman struggling in harsh times.
