Review of Divergent (2014) by Bsh N — 20 Nov 2014

This latest slice of dystopian young-adult entertainment is based on a runaway bestseller penned by Veronica Roth while still an undergraduate. The hokey setup finds a futuristic, postwar society in which the now pacified population are divided into five distinct groups, each with their own singular attributes: Abnegation (selfless); Amity (peaceful); Candor (honest); Dauntless (brave); and Erudite (intelligent).

No, I didn't buy it either, but never mind because neither does heroine Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley) who commits the unspeakable crime of having more than one skill, thus making her... Divergent! Rising star Woodley (who picked up a Golden Globe nomination playing George Clooney's daughter in The Descendants) gives it some welly in the lead role, more than holding her own again Kate Winslet's sinister uber-matriarch Jeanine, but Tris is no Katniss Everdeen, at least not yet - inevitably, this is the first instalment in a trilogy, with Insurgent and Allegiant to follow.

Drab production design (bombed-out buildings and Blake's 7 costumes) aims for gloomy portent, but the grit feels as fake as the fashionable tattoos.