Teen Girl Action Figures

The girls take charge:

LORE (B+) - Teenage Lore grows up quickly in the waning days of World War II, as she shepherds her younger siblings through the German countryside after their parents are taken from the home, apparently to be tried for their wartime crimes as faithful Nazi stalwarts. The kids wander from region to region, spending nights in holding camps and navigating the various factions of the conquering Allies, all the while trying not to starve to death.

Saskia Rosendahl and her blue eyes hold this film together as our flawed heroine. Lore is more naive than bold, and writer/director Cate Shortland (an Aussie following up her powerful "Somersault") is to be commended for giving the young woman layers. Lore is a true believer in the Fuehrer, and why shouldn't she be; it's pretty much all she has known since she was a toddler.

That, of course, involves being taught to hate Jews, but those beliefs get challenged when the young man helping Lore and her siblings navigate the landscape is a Jew. At times we are hit with the schmaltz of forbidden love, but Shortland keeps things believable to the end.

While this sort of story has been told before, "Lore" feels fresh and challenging. Shortland doesn't shy away from the realities of wartime brutality, and this film is not for the squeamish. What's fascinating is the way she creates a world in which the horrors of human nature are constantly contrasted with the beauty of Mother Nature. The greens of the grass and trees and the blues of the waterways are vibrant. It's as if Shortland, in her tale of motherless children struggling for survival, is reminding us that the war's atrocities are all manmade and that the Earth will spin on long after we've wiped ourselves out.

THE HUNGER GAMES (B-minus) - I was more engrossed than I thought I'd be as a reluctant second viewer of this pulp youth entertainment. For those of us who know Jennifer Lawrence from "The Hunger Games" rather than from the Academy Awards, it's a bit unsettling to watch her mug for the masses. But she has flashes of brilliance here, among a hit-and-miss cast.

We watched this in two sittings, and it plays much better when viewed as a very special two- or three-part episode of NBC's corny "Revolution."  Writer/director Gary Ross knows what he's doing here (he aimed for the gut and the heart in "Pleasantville" and "Seabiscuit"), and this works as trashy entertainment. It is paced well, and it hits the right emotional notes ... until it falls apart in the final act.

Lawrence (playing Katniss, which makes the 12-year-old boy in my snicker) comes off as a bit uncomfortable amid the early melodrama, in which Katniss volunteers to take her younger sister's place as a participant in the Hunger Games, the national competition in which a boy and girl from each of the 12 districts (as the former U.S. is now divided at least 75 years in the future) are rounded up and pitted against each other in a televised fight until only one is left alive.

The biggest problem is Josh Hutcherson, who is a cipher as Peeta, Katniss's jockish cohort from District 12 and manufactured love interest. Liam Hemsworth is also a lump, as Katniss's brooding boyfriend back home, but at least he makes himself scarce for most of the movie. I'm guessing these are the types of boys who attract teenage girls who go see movies like this, so just count me as, once again, Not the Target Audience. Lawrence and Hutcherson have zero chemistry, even considering they are mostly faking it for their TV overlords.

Stanley Tucci is a delight as the host of the reality show that televises the Hunger Games with captivating intimacy. Woody Harrelson camps it up as the cranky former survivor who mentors Katniss and Peeta and who uses his connections to help them stand out as participants and attract sponsors who can help them survive during the competition. And that Lenny Kravitz-looking dude turns out to be Lenny Kravitz as another member of Team Katniss.

I was distracted by the filmmakers' vision of the future. It's all over the place. It mostly involves big hair and crazy hats that suggest a post-revolutionary return to the Victorian era. The super-advanced technology is pretty cool, but the rest is a confusing mish-mosh.

The plot creaks under the weight of its 142 minutes. And by the final reel, Ross and the book's author, Suzanne Collins, seem to be throwing out improbable twists just so they can make it to the end in good enough shape for the sequel to work.