Veronica Roth’s Divergent crashed the book world in 2011 and, cue all of the screaming girls, was made into a motion picture release on March 21. The movie earned $56 million opening weekend, earning it the second-best opening of the year, just behind The Lego Movie which earned $68 million.
In a futuristic world, the war-stricken Chicago has divided into five factions in order to reach organization and peace, Erudite (intelligence), Abnegation (selflessness), Amity (peaceful), Dauntless (bravery) and Candor (honesty). The story begins with 16 year-old Beatrice/Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley), member of the Abnegation. In this separated society, members are to choose a permanent faction at the Choosing Ceremony, at the young age of 16. Beatrice must now make a choice along with her brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort). She finds herself battling with who she is and where she belongs, is she brave or selfless? Or is she both? After a failed aptitude test, she finds that she does not fit into just one faction, she is divergent, and she is in danger. In an act of bravery, she selects Dauntless, cutting her off from her old faction and her family. The film follows her through the tough initiation journey, led by Dauntless leaders Four (Theo James), Max (Mekhi Phifer) and Eric (Jai Courtney). She must prove herself worthy of her new faction, and hide her divergence.
I found myself melting into the movie screen; the performances by all of the actors were sheer perfection. Although I felt that some of the character development was missing due to the creative decisions, I will dive more into that later, Woodley and James fit perfectly into their roles and proved why they were chosen. It was easy for me to see them as the characters I fell in love with the first time I turned the pages of the book. There is a scene, in which Woodley breaks down emotionally, and her performance is flawless, my heart broke right alongside hers. James embodied everything that makes Four, well, Four; he was dark, hard, yet kind and endearing, it was beautiful.
Often when a movie is based off a book, the writing is dissected heavily. Every once and a while my face lit up in recognition of my favorite lines being directly quoted; that is always a wonderful sedative for any crazed book-reader. That being said, I was a little disappointed by the lack of my favorite moments. I was itching to see some of these moments on screen, and felt that without them some of the connections, the friendships and the relationships between characters were missing. For example, Tris’ new friends seem like more of acquaintances due to fact that the thrill and risk involved with becoming a Dauntless initiate was lackluster and the suspense never developed, so neither did the relationships. It may have been harder for nonreaders to really connect with Tris and her friends, and that is disappointing.
Although some things were missing, I was very pleased with the movie itself. I could pick apart every little detail, but that wouldn’t do anyone any good, I was happy with it (not thrilled, but happy). The beauty of Divergent was still there. The power of individuality and the importance of being you in spite of the oppression of others was still at the center of the story I fell in love with.
