Film Review: The Giver

Greg Vellante

The Giver is a feature motion picture essentially about remembering. Written by Lois Lowry, the novel captivated readers upon its initial publication two decades ago, providing a rich, haunting allegory about the creation of a dystopia that lacks emotional connectivity amongst those who populate it.

The 2014 motion picture adaptation of Lowry’s novel is strongest in its direct use of the literary source material. The story still drives The Giver home here, an evocative exploration of a small utopian society set long beyond the world and time with which we are familiar. In The Giver, nobody remembers anything of the old world. No recollections of war, pain, loss and also, quite tragically, no memories of love. The word isn’t even used anymore.

So, we are presented with a society saturated in the sameness of a black-and-white color palette. Every thing, every event, every action is preordained by the Elders, led by the Chief Elder (Meryl Streep), and at certain ages, individuals within the community are moved into their predestined roles, such as “Birth Mothers,” “Nurturers” and “Drone Pilots.” And then there’s our protagonist, Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), who is chosen to become the “Receiver of Memory.”

Jonas’ adventure takes him to the home of the current “Receiver of Memory” (Jeff Bridges), who indeed becomes the titular Giver by sharing with Jonas all of the memories of the past in order to offer advice to members of the community when they lack proper experience. As Jonas learns more and more about the past, The Giver also provides him with insight into the present, slowly unraveling the truth about the society created by the Elders.

It’s a truly inventive and engaging storyline done justice by Phillip Noyce’s adequate motion picture adaptation, a polished and presentable piece of work certain to envelop, but never lose audiences.

The Giver isn’t a bad film. Unfortunately, it isn’t a great one either. However, The Giver presents enough captivating moments to hold viewers over for its 90 minute running time. Again, the story is the strength here. While performances are fine and the direction is spiffy, yet sterile (also, holy close-ups, Batman!), The Giver suffers largely for not bringing anything new to the table in its visual recreation.

There’s a gorgeous quality to it, yet an equally grim one. Some visual sequences, especially those that represent the memory of some characters, stun with vividness and poignancy – as in the particularly moving climax of the film – while others, such as a montage of “courage” ending with a still photograph of Nelson Mandela, feel more like a subpar YouTube slideshows that any person with an iMovie application and access to the Internet could conjure up. It is a motion picture that feels passionate, with a whole cast and crew that ostensibly wants to do Lowry’s masterpiece justice, but falls short in many regards.

The Giver is a motion picture that was given a lot of great source material to work with, but, in turn, gives little to us, the new receivers. If you want a decent memory of The Giver, it may be worth starting on the page. Since after more than twenty years of waiting, despite being completely acceptable for its own merits, this is a motion picture adaptation unworthy of the extended anticipation.