Divergent diverges not very far at all...

Guys, how long has it been since I wrote a movie review?  Since The Great Gatsby I think. Wow, that's a long time.  Probably because I hardly ever see movies in the theatre anymore.  But I did last night.  Saw Divergent with my good friend Mike.  We were both inspired to see the film after we read this article about the "rape scene" in the film (in the interest of accuracy, it's not exactly a rape scene).  Aside from that article and one other, I literally knew nothing about either the books or the movie--nothing about the plot or the themes or the characters.

So I came to the movie as an almost entirely clean slate.  And the overall reaction?  It was pretty good.  But it had a lot more potential than it actually fulfilled.

Quick summary (there be spoilers ahead), for those who want it:  Post the traditional "devastating war" society has once again withdrawn behind a great big wall that shields them from the mysterious "other side."  To maintain peace after said war society was divided into five "factions" which each are built around a specific characteristic: Amity (they're nice), Abnegation (they're selfless), Erudite (the smarties), Candor (totes honest), and Dauntless (brave).  Each faction is in charge of certain aspects of life that suits their strengths.  At 16, after taking a test which supposedly tells you in which faction you belong, you then get to decide which you will belong to for the rest of your life notakebacksforever.  Enter Beatrice "Triss" Prior, born Abnegation, but super conflicted cause she just doesn't naturally let people take advantage of her.  This is reinforced when she takes the test and, instead of neatly fitting into one faction or another, qualifies for three: abnegation, erudite, and dauntless.  This is known as being "divergent" and is apparently real bad.  At the ceremony she makes the difficult decision to abandon her family and join Dauntless (faction over blood so she's basically leaving them behind forever).  Having joined Dauntless she enters into a rigorous training program because the Dauntless are the police force.  Smaller and weaker than nearly everyone else, she struggles to keep up during the first, physical phase of testing.  But in phase two, focusing on mental training, she suddenly shoots ahead of everyone.  It is here her "divergent" qualities emerge as she is able to deal with the mental testing far too easily.  But this is also dangerous, because the better she does in the tests the more evident it becomes that she is divergent....and oh my gosh, the bad guys (Erudites...because everyone knows that heroes are strong and villains are smart) are hunting down divergents cause they're dangerous...because reasons.  Obligatory Love Interest (hereafter known as Eyebrows and Lips because his real name is equally stupid) teaches her how to beat the tests like a true dauntless, however, and she manages to pass her final test undetected and graduate from initiate to official Dauntless.  Just in time for the climactic fulfillment of the evil Erudite plan...which is to drug all the Dauntless into mindless drones who will obey the Erudite's orders to go massacre the Abnegations...because no one can stand those selfless bastards anyway.  But handy!  When you're divergent you're also magically immune to the drone drug!  So Triss and Eyebrows and Lips (who is a sort of...intentionally cultivated divergent?  it's not clear) break away, shoot some people, get captured, Eyebrows and Lips is taken away by Darkest Timeline Kate (Winslet), but Triss is saved by Action Hero Ashley (Judd), also known as her mother who turns out was born a dauntless.  There's fighting and Triss rescues Eyebrows and Lips and together they save the day and then run away with a few friends outside the wall into exile to await the sequel where they'll, no doubt, lead a rebellion/revolution. (end of spoilers)

Shailene Woodley plays the main character, Beatrice (shortened to Triss early in the film).  Ms. Woodley also played Alex King in 2011's The Descendants, which you may know as a movie that I absolutely adore.  This was the only other thing I knew about the movie and I'll admit that it was a big draw.  She had done an incredibly good job as the struggling but ultimately good daughter in The Descendants and really impressed me.  And she did an equally good job in Divergent.  Triss could very easily be ruined in the translation to the big screen, becoming one dimensional and irritating--an especially alarming possibility since the entire basis for the character is that she specifically isn't one particular thing but many).  But Shailene really managed to create a complex character who is both brave AND self-sacrificing AND intelligent.  And even more impressively, she did so in a way that made her believable.  This was augmented by giving her believable physical abilities--namely, she, a tiny little girl who has never hit anyone in her life, is pretty consistently owned in every physical fight she gets into.  Let's all take a moment to celebrate the non-existence of any "waif-fu" in this movie.  By the end she does manage to hold her own for at least a few minutes before being laid waste but that feels more like a realistic development of her abilities due to hard work over time.

Shailene is supported by a nice cast of surrounding characters.  Eyebrows and Lips seems a little too beautiful (hence his name here) but puts in a pretty solid performance for a generic character.  But my favorites were Triss's friends.  They gave great performances and their relationships felt realistic and grounded.  I particularly liked Zoe Kravitz (yes, Lenny's daughter) who looks like a cross between her daddy and Kerry Washington.  She delivered her "candor" lines believably and she and Triss worked off each other nicely.

And as the original article I linked to discusses, the movie is definitely an impressive effort at bringing a real "strong female character" to the screen.  Triss's bodily autonomy is zealously defended.  She is independent and able to enforce her own decisions.  She manages to be a fighter without being completely cold and emotionless, which seems to be a very common trend in characterizing "strong" women.  And while she retains a great deal of selflessness, a solid argument can be made that it is the product of her upbringing rather than her gender.  Overall there are some really worthy ideas that they're tucking into the film.

But guys...there's some issues.  The premise itself seems pretty deeply flawed to me, and then the specific plot was kind of arbitrary.  Apparently the Abnegations run the government because they're selfless, but the Erudites want to seize control because...they want the power I assume?  But that's never stated, instead you have Darkest Timeline Kate, apparently the architect of this plan, asserting that she believes in her cause--indeed, she is willing to die for it.  But...what is her cause?  Because being willing to die for power doesn't quite make sense.  So what is she so passionate about?  I mean, she says several times that Abnegations are going to destroy the peace...but she never explains how.  There's just a whole bunch of sort of implied accusations and nothing concrete.  It was frustrating.

Additionally, it was painfully predictable.  I don't know how many times I leaned over to Mike and called exactly what was going to happen in the next moment.  I am, however, sort of lenient with predictability in films because the opposite problem--twists simply for the sake of twists--is infinitely more grating to me.

I did find the idea interesting.  Telling people what they are and then shutting them into societies built around that one trait so that they never try to develop any further aspects of themselves has some really interesting potential.  But I'm not sure that they followed through on the full possibilities of it.  They touched on it a bit with Eyebrows and Lips when he says that he wants to be more than just one thing.  But perhaps that further development will happen in the second story?

I think that in the end my biggest complaint is somewhat more meta than just this one film.  It is a complaint about the way YA books are adapted into movies, over and over again.  Let's look at some trailers.  First, here's the trailer for this movie:

How about The Hunger Games

The Host

Do you notice how all of these kind of feel the same?  Let's try one that's a little more fantasy

Those are all pretty recent, let's look at one that is sci fi and based on a pretty classic book

Huh...it somehow still looks...just the same.

Now lets look at a trailer that was just released for one of the greatest YA books ever written, The Giver

.....


....

....

wow.  Exactly the same.

Now, if any of you have read The Giver, and I sincerely hope you all have, you know that if ever there was a book that did not fit in the "heroic action adventure" category this is it.  The Giver is about reason and emotion and decision making and many fantastic things...but it is definitely not about action.  And if anyone had, for some reason, called me up and asked me if I had any ideas about how to make a movie of The Giver I could have given you plenty.  Creative and different ideas that would work with or maybe even enhance the natural strengths of the story.  I'm not being arrogant here, I'm pretty sure that any fan of the book could do the same if they tried for 10 seconds.  But what do we get here?  Perhaps the most egregious example of the same movie that they've now been making for years, with an almost insulting effort at ill-deserved legitimacy in the casting of some big names (but really Meryl...it actually hurts me that you're in this).  Say what you want about the source material being similar (I won't argue that there's a disturbing lack of innovative creativity in contemporary YA lit), if The Giver is being steamrolled flat into the same exact movie as the rest then it is clear that the source material has only the very most cosmetic influence on the actual move.  As my brother said "we based this movie on the title of a popular book."

And that was my biggest complain about Divergent.  Instead of trying to make a complex interesting movie that excels in different or unusual ways, they made the only kind of movie they think you can make--pretty people fighting in exciting action scenes.  And sure, the book may be a generic entry into the Hunger-Games-inspired dystopian YA genre (I'll let you know once I've finished reading it).  But the thing is, and this is the most frustrating part, you can still see the echoes of interesting and unique ideas; however they're like over cooked vegetables...recognizable as something that once had nutritional value, but now just a soggy mess.  

But as I said, that is more of a meta criticism leveled at Hollywood in general.  If I set aside that overarching annoyance I can say that I liked this movie more than I expected to.  I went in fully prepared to enjoy myself MST3K style, but ended up appreciating the movie for its merits rather than its mockable potential.  So maybe go see it...but I support you if you decide to wait for it to hit the dollar theatre.

Hal Steinbeigle

It was my dad's birthday last week.  I've been thinking about this post for a while now, but I think it was his birthday that finally prompted me to put everything into words.  I'm kind of nervous to share this because, while I meant it to be happy, and I feel like I said the good things I wanted to say, I am aware that there's a long of hard stuff here.  And I don't want to hurt my dad's feelings anymore than I already have in the past.  But I also really feel like I want to say all this aloud, so...dad, please take this as I meant it--and that is with the very best of intentions...

Several years ago I had a different blog on a different website.  There were only about three people who read that blog and to be honest, I thought of it more like an online journal that a couple of my friends happened to read than a public forum.  But apparently I had, at some point early in the blog's history, given the address to my dad and, unbeknownst to me, he was reading at least some of my posts there.  He read one, in particular, that I regret to this day.  I'm not really sure what it was about, but in it I talked about how sad I've always felt that I never got to have the doting father/daughter relationship I would see in movies or books.  I talked about it at some length because it honestly has been a sore point to me for most of my life.

Some time after that, during one of his weekly calls, my dad brought that blog post up.  He had read it and he was sad and I think a bit hurt by what I'd said.  Understandably so.  He told me that he'd always loved me and doted on me.  I don't remember exactly what I said to him but it was something along the lines of "it's ok dad, don't worry about it" and I left it at that.  I don't think I particularly believed him, but I didn't really think about it.

You see, I've long believed that, despite what they say about divorce--how it's so terrible and hard on the children and it inevitably leaves scars--my parents' divorce was the lone exception to that rule.  I didn't think  that I had any of that baggage that they say every kid picks up.  That might sound stupid, but that is legitimately what I thought for many many years.  But you're right.  It was stupid.

I say that with all due respect to my mother.  I know that she and my dad both did the very best they could to keep me and Dan out of the divorce.  But unfortunately, there's only so much you can do in a situation like that, and so some of my mom's feelings got passed along to me.  And I think I picked up a few on my own.

Because I had a hard time with my dad growing up.  Not a dramatic hard time.  We didn't get into screaming matches or have knock-down-drag-out fights.  But that may just be because that is neither my style nor my dad's.  Instead, I just didn't like him.  I went through a very distinct phase of disliking my dad at every age.  I remember explaining that, though I loved my dad--you have to love your dad--I didn't like him.  I hated it whenever anyone would tell me I was like him in anyway--that I looked like him or acted like him or thought like him.  I didn't want any part of him.

And I thought I didn't have any baggage from the divorce?

Once I hit college I thought I was over my childhood issues with my dad.  We talked fairly regularly and I didn't dislike him anymore.  I didn't really have any opinion about him at all.  He was just there.  I could honestly tell him not to worry about it when he called upset about a blog post where his daughter complained that she hadn't felt loved by her daddy...

I'm sad to say that it wasn't until these last few years that I've finally begun to really look at my relationship with my dad.  Rather, I've finally begun to really look at my dad himself.  Because I think that has been one of the biggest problems for me...

I haven't ever looked at my dad as an actual person.

Some several months ago I asked my dad for the first time ever why he went inactive after he and my mom got divorced.  I was surprised when he told me that it was because he felt ashamed and embarrassed...just like my mom had felt.

During a Thanksgiving visit (either last year's or the year before) dad and I were walking together, just the two of us.  I think I asked him about how my Uncle Phil and Aunt Vickie had started dating, but he ended up just telling me stories about all of them in college.  I had never heard any of them before.

And then there was the time maybe a year or two ago.  We were talking on the phone.  I have no idea how it came up, but dad told me about one of his favorite memories of me when I was a baby.  He said he loved to come home from work and put on music and sit with me on the floor and I would "dance" the way babies dance.

That conversation was the turning point for me.

I know it was probably just a bit of conversation for my dad, but the fact is...I cannot remember any sweet simple moments like that with my dad.  Beyond that, I can't remember him ever even telling me about any thing like that.  Until that conversation.  At that moment I realized that I didn't really know anything about my dad, either when I was a baby or at any other time in his life.

I had an epiphany about the divorce and my baggage, and it was that I had it.  I had picked up my mom's pain, and my own, and from a very young age my dad had ceased to be a person and had instead simply become a sort of blank figure that had failed to be around.  And for the first time I could see that and how it had warped my opinion of him from my earliest memories till that moment.  And I realized that I was not happy with that fact.

I can't really explain a process or describe an overt effort.  I don't even know if, should you ask my dad, he would be aware that anything about our relationship has changed in the last few years.  But I can tell you that it has.  Because I like my dad now.  And I love him--not just because everyone has to love their father.

I found some letters over Christmas that he and my mom had written to my Uncle Adam while he was on his mission.  I discovered that my dad's cursive handwriting (at least at that time) looked exactly like mine, and it made me happy.  Because I no longer hate the idea that any part of me comes from my dad.  I am sporadically and strangely left-handed, which I can only assume comes from him.  We both enjoy walking instead of driving.  We both like debating with people (some might call it arguing).  And we have a shared love of books and movies.  I know that my love of analyzing and evaluating stories comes from him; he is the best and only person I call to have those sorts of conversations.  After twentysome years of rejecting any similarities with my dad I am at last appreciating each and every one I can find.

I know this seems like more of a painful blog post than a happy one to dedicate to someone for their birthday.  Unfortunately, the past is the past and I cannot change what was.  But I wanted to make it clear exactly where I have come from so that it would be in context, with it's full significance, when I say that I love my dad and I am grateful to have him as my parent and friend.  I may not have known it growing up, but I know now that he loves me.  I am sorry for my behavior as a child, a teenager, and a young adult.  I'm sorry for my insensitivity and ignorance.  And I want to thank him for enduring all of it.  He has stuck with Daniel and I the best he could and I am lucky.  I admit, sometimes I'm a little bit jealous of my little brother Seth.  He's getting the childhood with my dad that I never got to have.

But the good news is that we get to have the rest of our lives to make up for that.