Movie Review: Divergent

Divergent

In a highly-structured, post-apocalyptic Chicago, a young woman hides her “divergent” gift when she joins the peacekeeping Dauntless faction.

Let’s get the negative stuff out of the way. Without knowing the books at all—which are in my library, yet to be read—I would be fine with the story: a paint-by-numbers dystopian teen sci-fi action joint, if the premise passed through some basic logic filters. The premise behind divergent individuals fails getting by those filters. Equating a natural ability to pass some mental tests with necessarily “thinking differently,” is a hard sell, although I’ll admit the two traits often accompany each other. So, let’s assume Beatrice, our plucky protagonist, is truly divergent in that she has a unique mind as well as noteworthy, unconventional abilities compared to the general population. “Divergent” people would be seen as an asset to many people in power, and leaders would be looking for divergent people to take under their wing.

Like in real life, high-ability people would only be a threat to some, but not everyone. This where the story could take an original angle on the teen dystopia genre. Jeanine and the rulers of Chicago would test for divergent people entering into the Factions as they chose them, and would keep a close eye on them and have some sort of program in place to mentor them for the ruling class. This would give Beatrice a goal to work towards, in addition to getting her bearings and passing the various physical and practical training with the Dauntless. Leaders in dystopian stories are always the main antagonists, and developing Jeanine as actually someone on Beatrice’s side, setting her against others in power in the ruling class or within the Dauntless leadership itself, would be a welcome subversion to the worn trope.

Along these lines, there’s no indication that Beatrice actually thinks differently. She is merely able to pass those drug-induced tests easily, if unconventionally. Yes, she does choose a different Faction than the one into which she was born, Abnegation, but that is a recognized and sanctioned activity; everyone coming of age can make that choice. Otherwise, she is a rather ordinary-thinking young adult. If it turns out that in the two sequels she does have an odd mind, there was very little watering of the seed planted early on when she chose a different Faction. To make it believable and effective, this stuff needs to grow little by little as the story develops. This premise flub was too fundamental of a mishap for me.

Okay, for the good stuff. At first I thought it was kind of silly that the Dauntless Faction basically ran around the city doing parkour with big smiles on their faces, but it makes sense when you understand the situation. Chicago isn’t quite a dystopia, as the different factions mostly get along, and the little society is fairly well-taken care of and as orderly as it needs to be. Dauntless is mostly a ceremonial security force—it’s even stated that the Faction exists partially to protect Chicago from outside threats, if they should ever present themselves. It makes sense that they wouldn’t be as regimented or imposing as real-world policing forces.

Shailene Woodley as Beatrice was a near-perfect casting decision, playing the wide-eyed hesitation of a teenager breaking into a new, unknown, daunting (haha) role as though she was made for it. Her choices and reactions were believable in a genre where the protagonists tend to overconfidently glide through their conflicts. I found the scene where her mother dies hard to watch, because it really seemed like her unfiltered, visceral reaction didn’t come from scripted acting. Despite all of “Tris'” training up until that point in the movie, Woodley gave her a moment to be the teenage girl known as “Beatrice” again.