While its source material is excellent, there's so much exposition and backstory that it is a truly impressive achievement how Tillman managed to maintain the key events and themes and tell the story in a consistent and coherent way. The acting is good all around, particularly Stenberg and Hornsby, and while Mackie is a fascinating and surprising casting choice, he plays his predatory, aggressive character well. The choices and changes they make I largely agree with (cutting out Devante is tough, but probably a good choice) and keep the film more compact. The change in Sekani holding the gun at the end was a brilliant choice, but the family staying in Garden Heights was a strange one. Where the movie really challenges itself and doesn't quite nail it is in balancing the two tones. The very end was the strongest example of this - after many intense, realistic scenes showing complex social interactions with racial undertones, the cinematography is suddenly bright and happy and everything works out perfectly in Garden Heights, the struggling area (King leaving won't change that much). It had worked so hard to show the systematic disadvantages blacks face, so to end the movie with the idea that if Starr just uses her voice, everything works out well served to undermine that. It seemed to waver between cliche, accessible to teens tropes and more gritty and nuanced racial commentary. I do think Tillman walked the line between the two successfully more often than not, but it still wasn't fully consistent to me. I didn't like the forced romantic element that was added to Khalil and Starr's interaction - it added nothing and was quite forced. Despite a few miscues and a frustrating ending, The Hate U Give is important and intelligently made, with thought-provoking social commentary just like the book.
Review of The Hate U Give
The Hate U Give
(2018)
Tillman does a great job adapting a complex novel, but struggles to balance the lighter coming of age tones with the darker social themes
19 January 2019
Warning: Spoilers