Making a successful “Hunger Games” movie out of Suzanne Collins’ novel required casting* the best possible performer as Katniss, and in Jennifer Lawrence, director Gary Ross has hit the bull’s eye*.

    Katniss’ story takes place in a future nation called Panem where the United States once stood. Every year, to mark the anniversary* of a peace treaty that ended a bloody rebellion, each of Panem’s districts has to send one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18, known as tributes*, to the Capitol to participate in a kill-or-be-killed event called the Hunger Games. Only one child comes out alive.

    In District 12, where coal mining is a way of life and the people dress like characters from “The Grapes of Wrath*,”16-year-old Katniss is concerned with getting food for her family and bonding with her hunky* best friend, Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth).

    But when her 12-year-old sister gets chosen as a tribute, Katniss volunteers to take her place and heads off to the Capitol, taking with her a pin in the shape of a mockingjay* (the symbol of both book and film) as a good luck charm.

    On the train to the Capitol, Katniss exchanges glances with Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), her fellow District 12 tribute, and spends quality time with key players like Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) and Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson), a former champion who is supposed to guide Peeta and Katniss.

    Though the film is faithful to the book, the screenwriters (Ross, author Collins and Billy Ray) have made some changes. The biggest one is getting rid of the book’s first-person structure, which allows for scenes that were not in the novel.

    Ross also makes the clever choice to have us see the games’ action on the huge TV screens the citizens of Panem are watching.

    Katniss, of course, is one of the reluctant* participants, and Lawrence’s ability to involve us in her struggle is a key to the success of “The Hunger Games.”

    (SD-Agencies)