In this dystopian young adult Madlib, a young girl lives in a future Chicago where the trains apparently never stop to let anyone off, and everyone is Sorting Hatted into one of five factions. Each faction is named to teach a teen reader a more highfalutin word for a virtue: Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, or Erudite. It's a perfect society, where everyone has a place and everyone knows that place. Well... except for a bunch of people who are factionless, but in a way that somehow doesn't threaten the perfect society. And also a handful of people who are Divergent (multi-classed), in a way that somehow does. Heroine Tris pledges her allegiance to the parkour-enthusiast Dauntless faction, where she learns to cover her secret of her Divergence, while uncovering the secret of a plot to take over the city.
There is a great deal about this story that simply makes no sense. Some of that possibly resulted from trims made to adapt the book to a movie. (Though they couldn't have trimmed much; the movie is an uncomfortable 2 hours and 20 minutes long.) Most of the awkwardness must have been baked right into the book itself. Why is the test to tell you your faction so important when you just get to choose anyway (and you're supposed to choose what you know in your heart to be true)? Does each faction have to be so cartoonishly one-note in its depiction (especially when several of non-Divergent characters seem to do a pretty good job of multi-classing in the film's final act)? What exactly is the wall around the city protecting people from?
And don't even get me started about Erudite's plot to take over control of the local government. For the supposedly smart faction, man do they have a stupid plan. It involves using some kind of injectable mind-control device to seize control of the people in the militant Dauntless faction. The brainwashers work on anyone except a Divergent, so the Erudites are working hard to identify and weed out any Divergents they can find. Except they're not looking for them using the method they've already invented that is 100% effective: brainwashers that work on anyone except Divergents. Equally inexplicable, their endgame involves using zombified Dauntless soldiers to wipe out the in-power-for-no-clear-reason Abnegation faction. But with brainwashers that work on anyone, why not just brainwash the Abnegation folks into yielding power to the Erudites? Ta-da! Instant, bloodless coup.
Even if you can just take the plot at face value, the movie will have you rolling your eyes with small details too. It equates "bravery" with "not fearing death," to a degree of stupidity. It leaves you bemused that the story of parents whose two children both left them in a single day is not a thing worth exploring. It leaves you wondering why on Earth Kate Winslet agreed to be in this movie.
About the only good thing I can point to here is the performance of the film's young star, Shailene Woodley. While she really isn't plausibly tough enough to sell the movie's action, she is very good at the softer, emotional moments. She's a likeable and sympathetic lead, and I look forward to seeing her in other films.
With Divergent, I truly hope we've reached the nadir of YA dystopian fiction. But I suppose since I'd give the movie a D-, I am leaving just a sliver of room for something worse to materialize somewhere. Needless to say, I won't be seeing the sequel in theaters now.
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