After the entire country went to war with itself, the city of Chicago erected a massive wall around the entire city (for protection), and to this day, the city has been divided into five factions, as a way to keep the peace.
The five factions divide the population into categories depending on their nature. Erudite value knowledge and logic; Amity farm the land; Candor value honesty and justice; Dauntless are fearless and free, making up the city’s police force and armed forces; and Abnegation are selfless, valuing all others above themselves.
Because of their selfless nature, Abnegation are chosen to be in charge of the leadership of the city. But the leaders of Erudite believe that their knowledge and love of learning means that they should be in control.
As the film opens, 18-year-old Beatrice Prior (Shailene Woodley) is about to undergo her ‘test’, an aptitude test to determine which faction she is best suited to. Along with all the others who have come of age, including her twin brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort), her time has come to choose the faction to which she will belong for the rest of her life.
But her test proves inconclusive; it seems she has traits that would see her suited to all five factions, a condition known as ‘divergent’, which is not a status that many in leadership see as a strength, rather an abomination that needs to be eradicated.
Beatrice (who was born into an Abnegation family) now faces a difficult choice: stay with her parents Andrew (Tony Goldwyn) and Natalie (Ashley Judd), or choose a different faction and risk never seeing her family again.
I don’t want to spoil anything of the rest of the movie for you, but I will just say this. The faction she chooses sees her confront many of her greatest ‘demons’, butting heads constantly with senior faction members Eric (Jai Courtney) and Four (Theo James), and even having to deal with jealous peers like Peter (Miles Teller) and Christina (Zoë Kravitz).
The screenplay (by Evan Daugherty and Vanessa Taylor), adapted from Roth’s incredibly inventive novel, is actually quite a decent adaptation. The task of adapting a novel written entirely in first-person to the screen is not often an easy one: there is always the decision that must be made as to whether to include scenes and conversations of which the protagonist has little to no awareness. In this case, the screenwriters have chosen to err on the side of caution, and only write what is actually in the novel; that is, we experience everything only from Beatrice’s point of view.
One of the key elements of a film such as this is costume design. The costumes in this film were designed by Carlo Poggioli. And they are designed so well, too. The factions all dress differently from one another, and it becomes easy to see at a glance (and from a distance) the different groups, and differentiate them from one another, a theme that is incredibly strong in this film (it will come to bear in the film’s two sequels as well, to an even greater extent, but this first installment does a pretty good job of laying the foundations that will be important later).
The production design (by Andy Nicholson) and cinematography by Alwin H. Küchler also go a long way to establishing an environment that is scarily close to our own society, while keeping it at a distance enough to qualify as ‘fantasy’. But the hard work by these two gentlemen establishes this ‘new’ environment so effectively as to feel real, in an unsettling way.
The only standout performance (in my opinion) is that of Kate Winslet, who plays Erudite leader Jeanine. But, of course, is it any surprise that Kate Winslet is an amazing actor? I think not.
Other than that, none of the cast give a particularly spectacular performance. That being said, a film of this genre is not generally known for its incredible acting, but rather for its plot and unique settings. So while the cast give an adequate performance, though not brilliant, the film doesn’t really suffer too much from this fact.
Director Neil Burger has done a great job at maintaining the suspense and mystery of the novel, and bringing it to the screen. I don’t think this film was necessarily the best of the trilogy it began, but given it serves as an introduction to the characters and settings we will see more of later, it is centrally important to the overall story.
If you decide to watch this film, do bear in mind that it is the first part of a trilogy, so don’t expect every loose end to be tied up by the film’s conclusion. I assure you, it won’t be; you need to watch the other films for that.
7 out of 10.
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