The Giver Review

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Brenton Thwaites, Alexander Skårsgard, Katie Holmes, Odeya Rush, Taylor Swift

 The Giver is the adaptation of Lois Lowry's Newberry Award winning novel of the same name. I'm sure most kids like myself have had to read it for school at one time or another. But this book was released twenty years ago. Why is there a movie just coming out now? We can have The Hunger Games adapted in two years, and this book made some real noise when it was released. So why hasn't this been the next Divergent or The Hunger Games? In twenty years, the fanbase for this book has basically evaporated into thin air. That's just my introduction to the source material, let me get into the actual dissection of the movie. Is it a bad movie or a good movie? That is a difficult question to answer. For now, I'll just say it's interesting.

The Giver takes place in the future, in a "utopian" society in which different colors, races, and emotions have been removed. People live in Communities and are ruled by a group of Elders that make decisions. When a child reaches a certain age, a job is picked for them. Some are birth mothers (children are not born from their parents), some are nurses, and Jonas (Thwaites) is chosen to be the next Receiver of Memory. The Receiver (Bridges) is an old man who has all the memories of the past the Chief Elder (Streep) has had erased, and delivers them to Jonas, who is able to see colors, feel love, and realize that they do not live in a utopia. It's one of the greatest world-building attempts I've seen in any sort of media. World-building, for those who are not aware, is a film technique to create a world or timeline that presents an explanation for its events as well as provide entertainment. The best examples of this are The Incredibles, Avatar, and Star Wars. They're crazy concepts, but lack clear explanation. The Giver's plot is seamless. There is not a hole to be seen. So where does the problem lie?

For me, the problem lies in the execution. The acting performances are somewhat mediocre and bland, but for a society with no emotions, that's how they're supposed to be. Katie Holmes plays the perfect mother in this setting, so flat and emotionless she makes you angry. Jonas is well-acted, as he comes to terms with the revelation that he and his world are not what they seem. The two standout performances are as many would expect: Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep. Now, I warn fans of the book, Meryl Streep's character is the big change between the book and movie. In the book, Elders exist but they don't really do anything. Here Streep is the Chief Elder and she stages an all-out manhunt against Jonas. I can see why they'd do that, but in the end it's not just me siding with the original book, it just confuses things a lot. Halfway through the movie, not just the color changes, everything gets flipped. Suddenly Taylor Swift is there, and it's all conspiracy, and takes a political tone instead of a sci-fi/fantasy one. I feel like there was such a better way to execute this, and give the great novel the treatment it deserves.

So is this a great movie? By no means. Is it a bad movie? Not entirely. I know a lot of critics have been really bashing at this movie, and I'll admit, the bad word of mouth definitely did have me scared going into the movie. It just goes to show what audience reactions can do to a movie, because this movie is a huge flop right now. I don't think it deserves that. The Giver is a decent movie, that fails horribly in some aspects, but is a great success in others. At the end of your showing, you have to ask yourself which one weighs heavier, the good or the bad?

Rating: 2.5/5 stars