Gary Ross's direction starts out almost impressionistically—a series of long, wobbly shots of our hero, Katniss Everdeen (yes, really), as she hunts animals in the forbidden area of District 12. As Katniss, Jennifer Lawrence is dead-on: She's strong and quiet, but savage and sharp when she has to be. And the Hunger Games themselves are exactly as Suzanne Collins wrote them: swift moments of brutality surrounded by long purgatories spent hiding in the woods, waiting for something terrible to happen. The movie stands as a work of art on its own, and that's the best possible tribute to the book that I can imagine. (PAUL CONSTANT)