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After a morning hunting with Gale (Liam Hemsworth), 16-year-old Katniss gets dressed up and joins the rest of the teens of District 12 in the annual "reaping," a public raffle drawing of this year's tributes. If you own any electronic device other than a razor, it will not be a spoiler that against all odds, Prim's name gets drawn. And Katniss volunteers to go in her sister's place.

The district's other tribute turns out to be the local baker's son, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), who once saved Katniss from starvation by tossing her a partially burnt loaf of bread while his mother wasn't looking. As it turns out, that's not his only connection to her.

Soon they are being whisked away to the capital on a bullet train, accompanied by their district's only living winner, drunken cynic Haymitch Abernathy. As excellently played by Woody Harrelson, Abernathy pulls himself together after realizing that for once, he is mentoring two teens who do not want to lay down and die.

Why doesn't Lenny Kravitz do more movie work? Cast here as the clever stylist Cinna, who helps Katniess and Peeta impress the crowd and sponsors, Kravitz is warm and low-key in a role that could easily be overplayed. Faring less well, Elizabeth Banks is their chaperone, Effie Trinket. Silly but not stupid in the book, the movie emphasizes her clown makeup and garish costumes, wasting a promising character.

In a similar pairing, Stanley Tucci is glib, charming and just slightly under the top as Caesar Flickerman, host of the Games show. But as gamemaster Seneca Crane, who runs things behind the scenes, Wes Bentley is notable only for his distractingly engraved facial hair.

Distracting, that's the word for director Gary Ross' approach. We know he can tell stories visually, witness "Seabiscuit" and "Pleasantville." If neither of those seem applicable to this dark material, neither do Ross' long stretches of shaky hand-held camerawork followed by ponderous close-ups. If you like to see heads filling the screen to the point where every pore and blemish can be studied at leisure, "The Hunger Games" is the movie for you.

The camera jumps pointlessly even when nothing is happening. Tom Stern, the directory of photography, weaves in and out of a slowly walking crowd, seen as shoulders and pockets and legs and quick, unrevealing pans across faces. When something actually is happening, the display sometimes rivals the visual incoherence of Michael Bay.

While neither stylish nor profound, Collins' writing is uncluttered, chugging along while mixing straightforward action with interior monologues that reveal Katniss as determined but confused, often smart but intermittently compassionate. When it focuses on the basics of this story, "The Hunger Games" movie captures a significant amount of that spirit. Despite running well over two hours, it moves crisply.

And crucially, the death of a key character is almost as affecting on screen as it is on the page.

Of course, teens killing each other as entertainment, as opposed to nation-building, is an inherently unpleasant subject, and some of Collins' set-up is clunky. The name of this partially rescovered North America is Panem. That sounds a bit like PanAm, but Collins insists on explaining it comes from "panem et circenses," bread and circuses.

Bread, or Breads, may not be the worst name for a post-apocalyptic country, but the giving the derivation seems like assuring our citizens that the good old USA means U [R] Screwed, America. Perhaps we could change it to iGiveup.

In the spirit of let's you and him fight, the novel also fans resentment among the poor folk of District 12 toward the slightly less poor folk of districts close to the capital, whose teens actually train for the games. The movie needs to keep this element to justify Katniss and Peeta willingness to kill at least some of their fellow teens, but it wisely soft pedals the gore.

And seeing the young cast brings home the fragility of these hapless tributes, no matter where they hale from. They are young and beautiful, and then they are dead. Cue credits.

Joe Tyrrell may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or followed on Twitter @ jtyrrell87