Above: Tris’ faces one of her fears. Courtesy of eOne.
With the enormous success of The Hunger Games, Hollywood execs are going full throttle into production on a myriad of young adult stories with female leads. Yes it is a good day to be a writer of young-adult fiction. It’s also a good day for the cinema, because despite the general shlockyness of these movies and the grade school politics they espouse, ladies are finally getting leading roles in genres once dominated by men. So it was with a certain sense of grin-and-bear it that I went to see the next Katniss Everdeen clone take to the screen. I didn’t expect a masterpiece, just a step in the right direction.
Divergent sets its story in a dystopian future Chicago. Long ago – for reasons unknown – society was split into five groups: Abnegation for the selfless, Dauntless for the brave, Erudite for the intelligent, Candor for the honest, and Amity for the peaceful. Each group has a role to play in the new society, and though children are born into whatever caste their parents belong to, at the age of sixteen each take a test to determine which group their personalities favour.
Our hero is Beatrice Prior (Shailene Woodley), a teenage girl who we meet on the eve of her test day. Beatrice belongs to Abnegation, and though her parents and twin brother are dedicated members of the sect, she feels as if she does not belong. Here suspicions prove correct, as Beatrice’s test reveals that she is Divergent – meaning she does not fit neatly into any of the groups – and is therefore dangerous. Told to keep her secret no matter what, she chooses to join Dauntless, changing her name to Tris and starting a course of extreme physical challenge overseen by the snarling Eric (Jai Courtnay) and the maybe-there’s-more-to-him dreamboat Four (Theo James).
Director Neal Burger has made a name for himself with highly stylized thrillers like Limitless and The Illusionist, and he is clearly enjoying romping around a crumbling Chicago. The setting is brought to life with simple touches like wind turbines hanging off the sides of skyscrapers, and an enormous wall of metal grating surrounding the city. It’s enough to make it feel different, at least until things shift into more intimate settings, where the pristine white interiors and gravel-grass streets scream Hollywood Backlot: Teen Dystopia Division.
For the early part of the film Tris cavorts through the city on the L Train (which still seems to run surprisingly well amidst the chaos) with her fellow Dauntless initiates, whooping and jumping like they’re in a commercial for milk. It’s pleasant fantasy watching them playing capture the flag in abandoned fairgrounds, and keeping watch on the city walls – but there is something rotten in the state of Illinois. And though it’s suggested there are threats outside the city walls, they’ll have to wait for a sequel, because for this film the threat is inside.
Erudite leader Jeanine (Kate Winslet) has some diabolical plans for the city. She plans to eradicate Abnegation and replace them with Erudite as the governing party. Abnegation is the only group that seems to think humans should be treated equally, while Jeanine and the rest of her Erudite cronies believe that human nature is the enemy and that all must conform to the system. Why construct a society with rules so contrary to human nature? We’re never told, but such is the nature of Fascism. Jeanine and some sympathetic Dauntless set off on a plan to eliminate the Divergents and gain control of the city, and it’s up to Tris to stop them.
While high concepts and elaborate rules are par for the course in young adult sci-fi, they often falter when it comes to delivering larger messages. Divergent is no different. The high school politics of the film – “what am I? A jock? A nerd? A hippy?” – are totally reasonable for a sixteen year old, but fail when used as the backbone of a fictional society. And though it does have a strong female lead, she spends equally as much time starring at her male instructor as she does fighting the bad guys. In the end, while the overall message of the film is a positive one, it feels a tad trite against so much potential.
Nevertheless there is enough to like in Divergent that it should do well at the box office. Shailene Woodley and Theo James are able leads, most likely on their way to Hollywood stardom. Kate Winslet is fun to watch playing off-type as a cold, calculating villain. And the hallucination sequences, in which Tris must face her worst fears, are genuinely thrilling.
In the end though, the film’s lack of substance makes it feel like a cash grab. It represents less of a genuine desire to see more Katniss Everdeens in cinema, and more of a reaction to current demands. Having not read the books by Veronica Roth I will abstain from judgement, but it certainly feels like this story was adapted for the screen not due to it’s genius, but because it fit a mold that Hollywood currently has installed on the assembly line. But for every equally derivative superhero spectacle being stamped out a line over, we’re totally okay with a Divergent. Take your daughters, and your sons.
Reviewed by Evan Arppe.
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