The Giver, 2014.
Directed by Phillip Noyce
Starring: Brenton Thwaites, Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Alexander Skarsgard, Katie Holmes, Odeya Rush, Taylor Swift, and Cameron Monaghan.
SYNOPSIS:
A dystopian tale of a community intentionally living without emotions.
As The Giver begins Jonas (Breton Thwaites) and his friends Fiona (Odeya Rush) and Asher (Cameron Monaghan) are anxiously awaiting hearing what job they will spend the rest of their lives doing in their community. There are a lot of rules in Jonas’ community, restricting what people can and cannot do and even what words they are allowed to use in their conversations.
In this dystopian future the decision has been made to “save” humans from their own emotions, their own choices. Because as Master Elder (Meryl Streep) says at one point, “When people have the power to choose, they choose wrong.”
For Jonas, however, there is a twist. He is chosen to be The Receiver of Memories rather than a Drone Pilot or a Nurturer like his peers. Jonas starts meeting with The Giver (Jeff Bridges), the only person in the community that has any memories of what life what like before community was born. When Jonas starts to receive these memories, and ditch his required daily medication, his bland world – shown to the audience in black and white – starts to show some color.
While I applaud director Philip Noyce’s choice to use black and white in the film I wish these sections were not so low contrast. While I’m guessing the low contrast was a choice to show the audience how lifeless the character’s lives are without emotions or love, it also had the effect of visually boring me as a viewer. I did enjoy some of the unique camera work used to show the emergence of color in the film. One of the first scenes in all color was reminiscent of bold, old-school Technicolor, which felt very appropriate to the scene.
Dystopian tales of societies that “box” teenagers in to certain roles are always going to be appealing and the actors in The Giver do an admirable job in the film. Thwaites in particular is an easy character to identify with and root for and Bridges is his usual unusual self in a role that could easily have been unintentionally comical.
The major problem I had with The Giver (it’s notable that I have not read the book) is that the lack of emotion from all of the characters in the film, from Jonas’ friends to his family unit, makes it challenging to care about many of the characters in the film. Or the outcome of the movie. The big reveal that occur 2/3rds of the way into The Giver rang hollow for me, unrealistic even in a world without emotions. And everything after that was a bit of a letdown. The Giver is far from a bad film, it is overall quite enjoyable and I’m sure I would have liked it even more when I was a teenager. However, I would choose to read the book before I would see the film again.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Amy Richau is a freelance entertainment and sports writer. Follow her on Twitter.
Originally published September 26, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
