Jennifer Lawrence, with her burnished-copper complexion, husky voice, and pale-blue eyes, is fine as the resourceful sixteen-year-old heroine Katniss Everdeen, but Ross consistently drains away all the tensions built into the cruel idea of the movie the increasing wariness and suspicion each kid must feel as the number of teens still alive diminishes, and the horror (or glee) that some of them experience as they commit murder.

NEWYORKER: Movies