New movie reviews in brief: Mockingjay Part 2, Brooklyn, The Night Before

The Hunger Games: MockingjayPart 2

Just about the best thing you can say about The Hunger Games finalis:it's over. The Hunger Games:Mockingjay Part 2is theexhausting title of thefinal movie in the series that began in 2012. We rejoin Panem'srebels, who are about to take on the capital, but each of those familiar faces ishiding scars.Katniss, as played by Jennifer Lawrence, is somber and sullen, still recovering from being attacked by Peta. For his part,Josh Hutcherson'sPetais scrambled and confused after being tortured in the capital, while Gale poor Gale (Liam Hemsworth)sulks in the corner.

• 3 Revelations from The Hunger Games directorFrancis Lawrence

Katnissmay besharpeningher arrows to take out the evilPresident Snow, but thebiggest villain here is greed and the decision to split Suzanne Collins's pulse-pounding final Hunger Gamesnovel into two separate films.Instead of the book'sjam-packed ramp-up to war coupled witha sobering finale,what we get with this movieis a slow, brutal slog.

As the uneasy moral centre and what increasingly seems like a one-note role, thisKatnissis a waste ofLawrence'sbold,vivacious talent.Hutcherson easily acts circles around Hemsworth's pouting pretty boy Gale.A special nod goes to Elden Henson as the mute Pollux: He's atour-de-force without utteringa word. The only actor who seems to be enjoying himself is Donald Sutherland as Snow, the increasingly unhinged leader leering like a jackal at all the blood he's spilt. Of course,the concludingchapter of TheHunger Games was never supposed to be fun, but with all the effort expended to get here, thisfinal showdown feels strangely anticlimactic.

3out of 5 stars

Brooklyn

In 2009, Nick Hornby helped the world discover Carey Mulligan with his smart script for An Education:her portrayal of a self-possessed teenager kickstarted her career. With Brooklyn, Hornby may have done it again. Though IrishactressSaoirseRonanhas starred in some gems (Hannah and Atonement for starters), Brooklyn could have whole new legion of fans learning to pronounce hername (tip: It rhymes with "inertia").

Neither a melodramanor stuffy period piece,Brooklynisa bold,beautiful romance that stretches across the Atlantic.Ronan stars asEilis, a quiet,determined young woman who leaves rural Ireland to find a new life in New York in the 1950s. At first, she'shomesick: a pale, awkward girl with an accent and shabby clothes. But everything changes when she meets Tony, a cocksure Italian-American with a thing for Irish girls.

Shooting in a faded Kodachrome palette, director John Crowley presents Brooklyn as an epic journeynot just of a teencrossing anocean,but Eilis'transformationfrom hesitant girl to worldly woman.Looking at Ronan at the end,you'd swear she'sgrown a foot taller. It's the way she holds herself. It's the people in her life she's been forced to confront. It's those eyeslike blue searchlights taking everythingin andmissing nothing.

4out of 5 stars

The Night Before

Seth Rogen and friends put the high back in holiday with their raucous, Christmas-themed comedy The Night Before. Director Jonathan Levine reteams with the actors from 50/50 Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt while adding Anthony Mackie for this tale of friends headingout for one final wild night.

The formula might feelfamiliar, but the gusto with which the boys go at it is gobsmacking. Rogen's physical comedy as a soon-to-be-dadchasing magicmushrooms features facial expressions that would put Vincent Price to shame.Gordon-Levitt provides the soul of the story as anaimless slacker still wounded by the crash that took his parents many Christmases ago. Finally,Mackie delivers asan insecure football star selling his soul one Tweet at a time.

To round out this Christmas punch bowl of debauchery, Levine castperformers who givefresh riffs on aholiday tale, includingBroad City's Ilana Glazer as a certain Seuss-inspired villain and Michael Shannon (!) as local weed dealer Mr. Green. The latter's turn asthe raspy, toque-wearing drug guru is reason enoughto book a babysitter and see this in theatres. Throwin Miley Cyrus, Canada'sown Nathan Fielder, Tracy Morgan as wellasMindy Kaling and The Night Before adds up toan x-ratedXmas mirthbomb. Sure, the eggnog gets syrupy at the end, but hey, it is aholiday movie after all.

4.5out of 5 stars