The Giver Review

Rated PG-13 (A Mature Thematic Image and Some Sci-Fi Action/Violence)

Running Time: 1 Hour & 34 Minutes

Cast-

Brenton Thwaites-Jonas

Jeff Bridges-The Giver

Odeya Rush-Fiona

Cameron Monaghan-Asher

Katie Holmes-Jonas' Mother

Alexander Skarsgård-Jonas' Father

Meryl Streep-Chief Elder

Taylor Swift-Rosemary

Emma Tremblay-Lilly

Alexander Jillings/James Jillings-Gabriel (Twelve Months)

Saige Fernandes-Gabriel (Six Months)

Jordan Nicholas Smal-Gabriel (Three Months)

Renate Stuurman-Dinah

Kira Wilkinson-Chief Elder's Assistant

Directed by Phillip Noyce

Lois Lowry's seminal novel The Giver finally arrives on the big screen.

Note: Screened on Monday, August 11, 2014 at the Ziegfeld Theater (Red Carpet Premiere).

Young adult novels—especially ones centered on strong-willed teenagers struggling against a bleak, oppressive dystopia—are currently all the rage in Hollywood alongside comic book superheroes. Given that we now live in an age where a book's film rights are often optioned out to a movie studio before said book even hits store shelves, it's rather shocking to see Lois Lowry's The Giver, one of the most popular and most cherished works in YA fiction, take over twenty years to arrive on the big screen. Published back in 1993, Lowry was inspired to write the novel when her elderly father began exhibiting signs of memory loss. She noticed that 'he was content, as he had forgotten every sad and scary event that he experienced, including…the death of his first child—[Lowry's] sister—at a young age.' This led her to 'think about the importance of memory and how one can manipulate it.' Over the course of two decades, Lowry's 1994 Newberry Medal-winning novel has sold nearly twelve million copies worldwide and has become a classroom staple in America. Not only did students enjoy reading the book when it was assigned, those that didn't have to read it willingly sought it out for themselves.

Actor Jeff Bridges has wanted to make a film adaptation of The Giver for eighteen years. He first came across the book while looking for material in which he could direct his father, Lloyd Bridges. Upon seeing the grizzled old man on the front cover, he thought to himself, 'Oh yeah, my dad can play that guy!' Bridges even went so far as to make a homemade movie with his father in the title role and his nephew Dylan—son of his older brother, Emmy Award-winning actor Beau Bridges—as main character Jonas (I hope this is included as an extra on the Blu-Ray release). Since the novel was so successful, Bridges believed that the film adaptation would be an easy sell in Hollywood. Unfortunately, that didn't turn out to be the case. First, films based on young adult novels weren't exactly in vogue at the time. Second, Lowry's book was incredibly controversial and was frequently banned in schools due to its mature themes. Third, the novel was very introspective, which made it difficult to translate on-screen. Difficult doesn't mean impossible and while it may have taken a lot longer than Bridges expected, "The Giver" has finally been released into theaters, courtesy of The Weinstein Company. However, the film would still be stuck in development hell if it weren't for the critical and commercial success of Lionsgate's "The Hunger Games" series, and therein lies the problem. Phillip Noyce's adaptation of Lowry's seminal novel is well-shot, well-written, and well-acted yet it can't help but feel derivative when its themes and setting have already been explored in the countless other books and films that have followed in its wake.

There's much more of an overt romance between Jonas and Fiona compared to the novel.

Following an undefined catastrophe in the future, society has rebuilt itself and eliminated all pain, fear, war, and hatred but this came at great personal cost as people—separated into 'communities' encased by distinct locational boundaries—must now follow a strict set of rules governing language, privacy, and honesty. A regimented daily injection prevents people from feeling any emotion—and, by extension, removes choice—and seeing any color. It is a society that lives in 'sameness' as everyone has identical homes, identical clothes, and an identical family structure. In one such community lives sixteen-year-old Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), who is about to participate in an annual ceremony in which he and his friends Fiona (Odeya Rush) and Asher (Cameron Monaghan) will be assigned a job by the Chief Elder (Meryl Streep) while workers who are past their prime retire to a place known as 'Elsewhere.' However, Jonas' job is no ordinary assignment as he has been chosen to become the 'Receiver of Memories.' Meeting the 'Giver' (Jeff Bridges) on the very edge of town, the young man is slowly given the collective memories of the past—both good and bad—through physical transference. Jonas soon begins to see the world in vivid color and experiences emotion, like love, for the first time. As he spends more time with the Giver, Jonas comes to realize that there is something seriously wrong with the community he lives in, putting him at odds with his parents (Katie Holmes and Alexander Skarsgård) and the Chief Elder.

Given how important color becomes in the dystopian world of "The Giver," it's only appropriate that the most immediately striking aspect of the film is the way it looks. Noyce and his team certainly put their tight budget (an estimated $25 million) to good use because the production design and art direction is simply fantastic. With its immaculately landscaped modular 'dwellings,' cleanly paved out-of-the-way roads, and geometric greenery, production designer Ed Verreaux has done a fine job in creating a society that's plausibly futuristic yet also emotionally suppressed. This sleek, antiseptic world is further enhanced by Ross Emery's black-and-white cinematography, which mirrors the way Jonas and the other residents in the community view everything around them. Emery takes a page out of Gary Ross' 1998 dramedy "Pleasantville" by showing occasional flourishes of color—Fiona's brunette hair, a red apple, a fleeting rainbow—but the film doesn't give way to color until the thirty-minute mark. When Jonas begins receiving the collective memories of the past, Noyce lets loose with vivid, hyper-realized montages that include well-known historical events like the Tiananmen Square protests and the fall of the Berlin Wall, as well as everyday acts of daring-do such as skydivers plummeting at dizzying heights or river rafters navigating raging rapids. Color represents life and vitality, and taken on purely visual terms, "The Giver" is a success.

I wish I can say the same for the film's story. Personally, I've never read Lowry's novel (it was never assigned to me in school) but I did familiarize myself with its general plotline before seeing Noyce's adaptation. Let me make this clear, there's nothing inherently wrong with the story itself. It's well-written as I mentioned in the beginning, and writers Michael Mitnick and Robert B. Weide have remained faithful to the source material's themes regarding the importance of memory and personal choice. Memory is what makes us who we are and without the collective experiences of our remembrances, our lives have no meaning and we might as well be mindless automatons. A person cannot truly appreciate joy without having felt pain as one cannot exist without the other. The film isn't exactly subtle when getting these ideas across, especially when it starts hammering home the power of capital-L Love, but the problem here is that they feel outdated and worse, derivative. This comes down to the unfortunate fact that Noyce's adaptation has arrived on screen after "The Hunger Games" and "Divergent" already mined such territory, albeit in slightly different ways. It's ironic because The Giver was published long before Suzanne Collins and Veronica Roth's books came out. Since audiences now expect a nice dose of action with these YA adaptations, this leads to the writers trying to 'amp up' a novel that's introspective at its core. Instead of Jonas simply taking baby Gabriel and setting off for Elsewhere, the film depicts it as a chase between the young man and the community's enforcers. It's obvious that Noyce and his writers tried their best in bringing Lowry's novel to the big screen. Unfortunately, their efforts are hurt by bad timing.

The presence of Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep lend "The Giver" a prestige quality.

At least Noyce populated his film with on screen veterans like Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep, lending the familiar material a prestige quality. He's not playing the 'hero' but Bridges is absolutely the star here. This is his long-time dream project and he gives it his all as the wise and philosophical Giver. The character is warm and generous yet is constantly burdened by the weight of holding all the memories of the past, a trait that Bridges excellently captures. 2014 has proven to be a banner year for up-and-coming Austrailian actor Brenton Thwaites as he's already starred in three films: "Oculus," "Maleficent," and "The Signal." As Jonas, Thwaites is quietly confident and doesn't overplay his character's unique situation while also managing to hold his own opposite Bridges and Streep. In fact, the film is at its strongest whenever it's focused on Jonas and the Giver, with Thwaites and Bridges' performances breathing life to the story's themes. The rest of the supporting cast is fine but the scant running time limits the development of their characters. Odeya Rush's Fiona is given an expanded role, because all YA adaptations must now contain a romance subplot while Cameron Monaghan's Asher is utilized in a tense stand-off in the third act. Katie Holmes and Alexander Skarsgård successfully convey the community's vapidity as Jonas' parents. Despite being saddled with a terrible wig, Meryl Streep is engaging as the authoritarian Chief Elder and finally, Taylor Swift doesn't embarrass herself in a glorified cameo as the Giver's daughter Rosemary.

Released on August 15, 2014, "The Giver" has received mixed-to-negative reviews with 31% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics noted that 'Phillip Noyce directs…with visual grace, but the movie doesn't dig deep enough into the classic source material's thought-provoking ideas.' Personally, I feel the film is being unfairly maligned because it's following in the wake of "The Hunger Games" and "Divergent." It's certainly a bit more contemplative and not as exciting to watch compared to the aforementioned big-screen adaptations but that's what makes "The Giver so refreshing—its simplicity. Unfortunately, Noyce's film failed to find much of an audience and debuted to a disappointing $12.8 million. While that's better than recent YA box office flops like "The Host," "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones," and "Beautiful Creatures," that's not exactly saying much. This is probably the best adaptation we're going to get of Lowry's celebrated novel. It's just a shame that much of the source material's impact is lost simply because the film version came too late. At least Bridges managed to see his passion project finally realized.

Final Rating: 3.5 out of 5

"When people have the freedom to choose, they choose wrong."