The Giver Review

I saw The Giver on August 21, 2014!! I remember reading the book by Lois Lowry in Mrs. Christie's 6th grade Reading class. While there are definite changes from the book to the movie, I actually really enjoyed them. I felt it made the story more interesting. I felt it gave more substance overall. It really is a movie about what it truly means to be human. The movie's message really focuses on that. It delves into the faults of the perfect society created. It shows that one needs to experience the full gamut of emotions to be a whole person. While conforming to societal norms is less conventional, I felt this movie spoke to all ages to be accepting of others. The Giver shows us that different races, religions, & cultures are essential to life. Our memories & choices-good & bad make us whole.

I thought that the movie captured the general core of the book quite well. The overall premise of the unique community, advanced technology, as well as the black & white nature of it all-the important ceremonies, the job selection (nurturer for instance), the family dinner scenes, the transcendence to color, & the relationship between Jonas & The Giver were all very good. I thought Brenton Thwaites captured the personality of Jonas really well. Making the characters older in the movie works a lot better for the movie's overall message. I realize the community eliminates any notion of feeling physical or emotional, but a 12 year old would not be able to understand the importance of what the role of a receiver really means. A person should have to be at a higher level of maturity to undertake this task,

They definitely made the characters older so they could understand the emotion of love. While a romantic edge is touched upon between Jonas & Fiona, it's really a look at understanding emotion. It's looking at love as a whole, not just romantic love, but love of family, friends, & community. Both joy & sadness are well represented throughout the movie. I think the movie allowed the story to flow at a better rate than the book. I liked the three central young actors: Thwaites, Odeya Rush, & Cameron Monghan all did well in their roles. I liked Rush's deeper look into Fiona. She's definitely somebody I'd like to see more from. I think she has potential to become one of the better young actresses. We have plenty great ones now, but there's always room for more. The connection with her & Jonas is great to watch on screen. Cameron is known for playing the excellent Ian Gallagher character on Shameless, and did an excellent job as Asher switching from a rebel to a conformist.

For me, the two people that truly stole the movie were Jeff Bridges & Meryl Streep. I loved the characters because it represented two different ideologies. Watching his interaction with Thwaites shows how passionate he is about the project. His interaction with Jonas displayed that a true receiver will be able to balance the good & bad memories. With The Giver's guidance, Jonas realizes he can give the community it's memories back. On the other side, you have the chief antagonist in the Chief Elder played by Streep. She played the idea of conformity and adhering to rules really well. Her look was great since she was basically dressed in black & white. She actually reminded me a little bit of Angelica Huston the way she looked in this from her earlier work in the 90s.

It's really interesting to watch how Jonas's acquisition of memory  can influence younger members of society to accept differences. We see this with Fiona. Even though Asher becomes more of conformist, we see his understanding of emotion as well. Jonas is definitely a great choice for receiver. He wants to give memories to the whole community. He wants to create a society of unique individuals. The Giver's ideology influences the younger generation. The Chief Elder's ideology influences the parents & older members of society. The adults conform to the rules of society. I think Katie Holmes did a great job with that. She was the justice representative & she even tries to keep Jonas on point with society. I've always been a fan of Katie since Joey Potter in Dawson's Creek. I've seen most of her movies over the years-always will be one of my favorites. Alexander Skarsgaard did a great job in his role as well. I think he captured the idea that he doesn't actually think about what he's doing. That's the idea of this "perfect" society. You don't make decisions for yourself. You just do whatever the chief elder tells you to. Jonas is trying to free people from this. The Giver is the one that gets the ball rolling on that.

One of my favorite scenes was one towards the end where both The Giver & The Chief Elder debate about their ideologies while Fiona is being prepared for the ceremony to elsewhere. I really felt you could understand where both characters were coming from. Both Bridges & Streep were phenomenal in this scene. Both made intelligent points. What side of the fence are you on? For me, I agree with both view points. I feel you need to find a balance between the familiar & the unfamiliar. You need to appreciate tradition, but you need to welcome change in a constantly changing world.

I give this movie a 4/5 for great performances, memorable scenes, cool transition from black & white to color, the tweaks from the book (Lois Lowry was very supportive of this adaptation), and an incredible overall message of what it means to be human.