The question everyone who hasn’t seen the film, Divergent, wants to know: is Shailene Woodley as effective as Jennifer Lawrence in playing similar roles? The only difference, I see, is in the plot, something neither actress could do anything about.
Woodley is as engaging as the rest of the cast that includes Theo James, Ashley Judd, Jai Courtney, Kate Winslet, Maggie Q and Ray Stevenson. Woodley, who looks like she could be Lawrence’s sister, was seriously considered for The Hunger Games, and was expected to have the lead in Catching Fire, but Lawrence made it back. Catching Fire has a more decipherable plot than The Hunger Games. Woodley’s “Tris” in Divergent is as wonderful as Lawrence’s character, “Katniss.” It’s easy to love them both.
Divergent, a young adult book transferred to film, is as entertaining as any following the dystopian trend, including The Hunger Games and its sequel, Catching Fire. For adults who enjoyed those films, then Divergent does it one better. The Hunger Games was a good film in many ways. The basis for the story is convenient rather than realistic if we extrapolate our own world trends; the society and logic for the games don’t work for all some of us reality-thinking adults. It still makes for a good romance adventure tale.
If we were thinking on a broader scale, we might ask a lot of questions if we wanted to, but we don’t. Divergent, as others based on young adult books, is voyeuristic in that it involves prying observation of “our own children” represented on screen. We want to see our children brave, heroic and caring. We’d like them to save the world we messed up. For grown-ups, Divergent and The Hunger Games fill our need for vicarious thrills. We yearn to be young and adventurous again. We love watching the young win–even it is against others the same age. As long as those hurt or killed are deserving (meaning bad guys), or going to kill the good guys.
What makes Divergent different from the rest (and I don’t pretend to know all the films made or being made in this vein today) is that the scene is on a larger scale and the young people are entry-level to the scene. Their journey is just beginning. Grown-ups have already screwed things up by dividing society by its values. Evil has the usual melodramatic pervasiveness in these films; there is always a villain to wants to make what seems to be a good plan (the world as it is presented to us) even better.
Hollywood has the habit of latching on to a particular approach and milking it for all its worth, which, of course, makes dollar sense. In this case it is another dystopian science fiction (SF) young adult novel and made into a film, rated PG-13. While not particularly trendy in adult science fiction, dystopian fiction is perfect for adolescent fiction–and films, it seems.
Filmmakers are able to attract large numbers of those who go out to movies the most: teenagers, and without spending hundreds of millions of dollars. Divergent was made for a mere 85 million–very economical by today’s standard.
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