DIVERGENT (M)
★★★½
General release
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The human urge both to belong to a group and to be recognised as unique and special becomes particularly pronounced in adolescence. Divergent - based on the novel by Veronica Roth - cunningly plays on both traits in an entertaining piece of sci-fi dystopia.
It's set in a future, walled-in Chicago after a vaguely referenced war many years earlier. Society is divided into five factions, each representing a different virtue: Abnegation (selfless); Amity (peaceful); Candor (truthful); Erudite (intelligent); and Dauntless (brave) - each performing a different social function.
People are born in a faction but in adolescence they have an aptitude test and, at a ceremony, they must choose whether to remain with their birth faction or join a different one.
Beatrice (Shailene Woodley, impressive in The Descendants) was born into Abnegation - the social work and governing faction - but when she is tested her results reveal attributes from different factions, rather than focusing on one.
She is warned by her sympathetic tester to keep this to herself; as a ''Divergent'' she will be considered a threat to the social order. She chooses to join Dauntless, the warrior faction. But Tris - as she renames herself - will find it tough going, mentally and physically, and it will get even harder. There are some obvious echoes of The Hunger Games films here - a tough but vulnerable adolescent heroine, a harsh society with hidden layers that get revealed more and more as the story unfolds, an emphasis on the training regimen, an Oscar winner in a prominent role (Kate Winslet plays the leader of Erudite).
But in the world of Divergent there isn't even a focus on celebrity to give people some light relief; getting a tattoo seems to be about the only recreation. The training regimen that takes up a large part of the film sees Tris dealing with two leaders, brutal Eric (Aussie Jai Courtney) and more sympathetic Four (Theo James), making allies and enemies. It's quite absorbing, though a lot of the behaviour seems more reckless than productive.
Divergent makes for decent, if somewhat dour, entertainment. It will be interesting to see how the story progresses in the sequel. The end of the film is certainly a long way from its beginning.