REVIEW: The Hate U Give is a good movie with an urgent message, but will it be heard?

Devotees of young adult novel The Hate U Give should track this film down ASAP. Rock solid in its intentions, it's a quality teen movie destined to be vaguely admired than genuinely embraced.

Rock-solid in its intentions, though way too long in its execution, The Hate U Give is a quality teen movie destined to be vaguely admired than genuinely embraced.

Rock-solid in its intentions, though way too long in its execution, The Hate U Give is a quality teen movie destined to be vaguely admired than genuinely embraced.

Amandla Stenberg (best known as Rue from The Hunger Games) plays Starr Carter, a bright and intuitive African-American teenager dealing with all the usual variables of modern high school life : peer pressure, parental expectations, tentative relationships, tested friendships.

However, as a story adapted from the best-selling YA novel by Angie Thomas slowly expands, Starr is saddled with a heavy burden for someone so young.

Scene from the movie The Hate U Give. 20th Century Fox Films.

She is the only known witness to a friend’s unjustified killing by a trigger-happy cop.

Khalil (Algee Smith) was black. The policeman is white. A court case hinging on Starr’s evidence is slowly, but surely taking shape.

Can she hold her nerve and ensure justice prevails? Or will dark forces who would prefer another result have their way?

Scene from the movie The Hate U Give. 20th Century Fox Films.

Complicating matters further is Starr’s racial identity, the true shape of which she is yet to fully acknowledge.

Her family has scrimped and saved to send her to a “safe” white school, well away from the trouble-prone streets in their predominantly black neighbourhood.

Starr finds that she sees the world one way when at school, and a whole other way when at home. This disconnect will also influence how she handles a decision that could govern her path into adult life and beyond.

There are some moments of great drama and plenty of provocative food for thought here. But it could all feel a bit too much like homework for the young audience it is seeking to both illuminate and mobilise.

Scene from the movie The Hate U Give. 20th Century Fox Films.

THE HATE U GIVE

Rating: Three stars (3 out of 5)

Director: George Tillman Jr. (Faster)

Starring: Amandla Stenberg, Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby, Anthony Mackie, Algee Smith.

If you don’t speak up, the only way is down