The Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 1

TRAILER

The long awaited part 3 of this epic movie series opens after Katniss Everdeen, JENNIFER LAWRENCE, has destroyed the games and goes to District 13 because District 12 has been destroyed.  She has left Peeta Mellark, JOSH HUTCHERSON, behind and she is anguished by what may have happened to him.

Everything in this movie is deeply symbolic. The white rose, the mockingjay, the skulls and skeletons. The movie is dark and foreboding. There are no spectacles with chariots and designer clothes, but propaganda as both sides in the conflict try to gather troops. To add to the unbearable gloom, we witness a fine performance by PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN as Plutarch Heavensbee, whom we know has died before the final shooting of the film. I kept looking at his face for clues as to why things turned out so badly for him. At one point I noticed he had sores around his mouth. I winced.

By the end of the movie, the stage is set for the final conflict and we discover Peeta's tragic fate.

-LENA GHIO