THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 2 (12A)
4 stars
At a critical juncture in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, Woody Harrelson’s grizzled mentor Haymitch Abernathy pays tribute to his battle-scarred protegee, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence).
“I’ll say this Katniss, you don’t disappoint,” he beams.
Similar praise could almost be lavished on the concluding chapter of the dystopian saga, based on the novels by Suzanne Collins.
This bruising battle royale remains faithful to the books and largely justifies the decision to cleave the final salvo in two – a la Harry Potter and Twilight.
A nail-biting subterranean set piece, pitting the rebels against a horde of snarling creatures called mutts, is a thing of terrifying beauty reminiscent of Ellen Ripley’s hellish encounters with aliens.
And Danny Strong and Peter Craig’s muscular script doesn’t shy away from the moral conundrum of conflict for a generation, whose childhood innocence has been stained with blood.
“It’s war. Sometimes killing isn’t personal,” suggests one teenager, trying to make sense of the carnage.
If Mockingjay – Part 1 dragged its feet, trading glancing verbal blows between Katniss and Machiavellian warmonger President Snow (Donald Sutherland), the concluding salvo lands one devastating blow after another as simmering animosity ignites full-blown slaughter.
Without any fanfare, Part 2 opens on Katniss’ anguished face as she recovers from a skirmish with brainwashed Hunger Games competitor Peeta (Josh Hutcherson).
The unified Districts are preparing for an assault on the Capitol and Katniss must lead the charge, guided by District 13’s crusading President, Alma Coin (Julianne Moore), gamesmaker Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and lovestruck childhood friend Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth).
Intelligence reveals that President Snow has planted booby traps known as pods around the ruined city in order to annihilate the rebels before they reach his fortified mansion.
Katniss, Peeta, Gale and other valiant allies including Hunger Games victor Finnick (Sam Claflin) venture behind enemy lines to launch a covert strike on Snow.
“He needs to see my eyes when I kill him,” snarls Katniss.
However, casualties are high and the gung-ho heroine must watch as the people she loves, including her plucky sister Primrose (Willow Shields), risk everything in the name of liberty.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 is a fitting and relentlessly grim conclusion, distinguished by breathless action sequences that recall the first film back in 2012, before leading lady Lawrence became an Oscar-winning powerhouse.
She delivers another emotionally wrought and beautifully measured performance, torn between Hutcherson and Hemsworth’s rival suitors for Katniss’ hardened heart.
Director Francis Lawrence signs off in downbeat style but does make a couple of notable missteps.
The most gut-wrenching death in the book is an anti-climax on screen and a wistful yet melancholic coda might have been axed entirely by a braver filmmaker.
THE DRESSMAKER (12A)
3 stars
Revenge, mother-daughter bonds and the transformative power of clothes are the threads stitched deftly throughout Jocelyn Moorhouse’s quirky Australian comedy drama, which induces tears as much as giggles.
At its heart is the beautifully shifting relationship between the titular dressmaker Tilly Dunnage (Kate Winslet), and her senile single mother, Molly (Judy Davis) – who both, in turn, need mothering.
Based on the bestseller by Rosalie Ham, who also adapted it for the screen, The Dressmaker is set in the 1950s in the small town of Dungatar and opens with a perfectly coiffed Winslet as Tilly, arriving with her Singer sewing machine.
She languorously lights a cigarette before announcing, menacingly, “I’m back you b******s!”
Through eerie black and white flashbacks, which are a little TV movie-esque, we learn that Tilly was sent away as a child for her involvement in the death of a schoolboy.
Having found her metier as a seamstress and trained with the likes of Balenciaga in Paris, she’s returned to Dungatar for her elderly mother Molly and to uncover who’s to blame for what happened to her as a child.
Tilly finds her mother bed-ridden in a filthy house, not recognising her own daughter, and sets about cleansing and nursing her back to health – against her wishes.
Tea chests of exotic fabrics arriving from Paris soon pique the interest of Sergeant Farrat (Hugo Weaving) who has a secret – like almost everyone else in the town.
Tilly makes her presence known – and advertises her skills – by posing in two stunning dresses pitch-side at a local football match.
The ladies of the town gradually arrive at her door, asking her to dress them, with remarkable results.
Tilly also captures the attention of footballer Teddy McSwiney (Liam Hemsworth), whose family has been keeping an eye on old “Mad Molly” in the daughter’s absence.
She initially resists his overtures, fearing her past has cursed her.
Gradually Tilly’s new customers, Sergeant Farrat and Teddy help the outcast to piece together what really happened when she was younger, and the town’s case against her begins to unravel.
However, Tilly’s beautiful creations cannot mask the real ugliness of the locals’ narrow minds.
Weaving delivers a stand-out performance as the by-turns flamboyant and deadly serious policeman, who acts as a buffer between Tilly and the unforgiving townsfolk.
Winslet is never overly challenged by the demands of her role, but she plays Tilly’s softer, more vulnerable side extremely well. It’s refreshing to see Hemsworth, some 15 years younger than Winslet, playing the love interest, when it’s so often the other way round.
Ultimately the film is a frippery – with so many caricatures among its chorus of disapproving townsfolk and no clear message about love and loss, bullying or ageing.