Saying Goodbye to ‘The Hunger Games’

Katniss Everdeen’s cold gaze fills the parameters of the 76×97 foot IMAX screen. She appears confused and hurt. The undoing of the white bandage wrapped around her neck reveals milky skin peppered by raw bruises. Despite a critically hoarse voice she manages to say, “I am Katniss Everdeen.” She is unflinching, determined. A warrior.

And she’s a star: Everdeen commands the entire theater (both ours and the one in which she fights), a Yohji Yamamoto-inspired combat outfit armored across her body. Ms. Everdeen’s style has come a long way from the fiery theatrics that hallmarked her earlier costumes. She’s grown slightly more comfortable in her role as the Mockingjay, an emblem as significant for its literal and ideological symbolism. Katniss Everdeen won’t be falling down any red carpets on her way to the Capitol, and yet I can’t help but draw parallels between Everdeen and the woman who plays her.

Like the Mockingjay, Jennifer Lawrence was seemingly plucked from a crowd of hungry contenders, perhaps unprepared for the stratospheric rise in fame that would follow. Lawrence handled her newfound celebrity with a charming mix of apprehension and vehemence. If these two sentiments appear to be conflicted, it’s because they are. People often are.

Lawrence was a refreshing presence, a flicker of reality in a contrived and artificial Hollywood arena. Nobody pulls off Dior and a good fart joke quite like Lawrence. And like the Mockingjay, she yielded to the extravagant costumes that press events often necessitate, but never let them get in the way of a good fight.

Just last month, Lawrence became that flicker once again when in an essay for the Lenny Letter she declared, “I’m over trying to find the adorable way to state my opinion.” She was responding, of course, to recent revelations over how much less she was being paid than “the lucky people with dicks.” Lawrence’s was a voice that women (and supporting men) in the industry could rally behind. Her railing against the cutesy role she and others are expected to play both on and off the screen implicated an industry that has been running on obvious pretenses for decades.

Katniss Everdeen looked better in IMAX than most would from a comfortable distance in perfect sepia tone lighting and yet, she looked tired. Something in her gaze suggested an acknowledgment of the end. Both she and the actor who’s played her for so many years looked ready to move on from this particular game.

Fans of the franchise may not be, of course. No matter how satisfying a conclusion, it’s sad when a great story comes to a close. But Jennifer Lawrence is likely ready to shed the tie-dyed blend of herself and Katniss Everdeen — to finish the chapter and salute her goodbye.

Like they say in Hollywood, “When one door closes, another opens.”

Follow our little moon [boot] walker, Esther on Instagram; feature image via Entertainment Weekly; collage by Krista Anna Lewis.

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