The Giver
Directed by: Philip Noyce
Written by: Michael Mitnick and Robert B. Weide - based on the book by Lois Lowry
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Brenton Thwaites, Alexander Skarsgård, Katie Holmes, Taylor Swift, Cameron Monaghan, Odeya Rush, Emma Tremblay
Drama/Sci-Fi - 94 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 13 Aug 2014
Written by: Michael Mitnick and Robert B. Weide - based on the book by Lois Lowry
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Brenton Thwaites, Alexander Skarsgård, Katie Holmes, Taylor Swift, Cameron Monaghan, Odeya Rush, Emma Tremblay
Drama/Sci-Fi - 94 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 13 Aug 2014
If humans were all equal in our amount of possessions, temperament, and expectations, there would most likely be no war or suffering. There would also be an absence of both the extreme highs and extreme lows we feel. Consider the tradeoff. Would you personally sacrifice your emotions, memories, and knowledge of your surroundings in exchange for safety? There would be no famine, suffering, or heartbreak. There would also be no love. Based on Lois Lowry’s 1994 young adult book (which I have not read), I thought of similar stories which cloak individuality in favor of the common good. Pleasantville (1998) explored the scenario most effectively as did John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ in a way. The Giver was a published novel before the recent trend of teenage-focused dystopias (The Hunger Games and Divergent), but it arrives on film after them and comes across as just another cog in the young adult book to film adaptations.
In a ceremony eerily similar to Divergent with a splash of Logan’s Run, Jonas (Brenton Thwaites, 2014's Maleficent) learns that rather than joining his peers as laborers or teachers, he will be the next Receiver of Memory. Only one person in the entire Community contains the memories of the past, of whatever civilization came before. Everyone else remains ignorant of where humans evolved from and to ensure they maintain their blissful ignorance, they receive injections every day to stunt their feelings, give them color blindness, and keep them numb to the ideas of difference and even death.
In a ceremony eerily similar to Divergent with a splash of Logan’s Run, Jonas (Brenton Thwaites, 2014's Maleficent) learns that rather than joining his peers as laborers or teachers, he will be the next Receiver of Memory. Only one person in the entire Community contains the memories of the past, of whatever civilization came before. Everyone else remains ignorant of where humans evolved from and to ensure they maintain their blissful ignorance, they receive injections every day to stunt their feelings, give them color blindness, and keep them numb to the ideas of difference and even death.
Jonas’s parents, Father (Alexander Skarsgård, 2013's The East) and Mother (Katie Holmes, 2011's Don't Be Afraid of the Dark) are not his biological parents, merely his assigned family unit. Knowing your actual parents may trigger feelings of attachment leading to undesired feelings amongst the collective. The Community’s High Elder (Meryl Streep, 2013's August: Osage County) keeps a watchful eye ensuring ‘Sameness’ is strictly adhered to and she maintains what appears to be an uneasy truce with the current Receiver of Memory (Jeff Bridges). He becomes the titled Giver when he starts transferring his knowledge to Jonas, the boy meant to replace him.
Jonas wakes up to the ideas of color, music, joy, and the beginnings of love. He wants to share his wisdom windfall with his best friends and family but they do not have the capacity to begin to understand him. They look at him as an item of curiosity and later some view his as a threat to their comfortable Sameness. Not everyone appreciates it when you rock the boat of stability. Even though it is called The Giver, it is exclusively about the new Receiver. However, the Giver is a far more intriguing character. He has lived his whole life as the sole person aware of what it means to be human among a population of highly efficient zombies. Unfortunately, the Giver is also a supporting character who pops up to introduce a new feeling to Jonas who will then run off and explore it and impress it upon those closest to him leaving the Giver off screen again.
Following the familiar plot pattern of its movie predecessors, the filmmakers keep the audience in the here and now. We learn nothing about how the Community was formed or how the time of Sameness came about. Instead, we get teenagers furrowing their brows about the concept of differences and wanting to push their boundaries. The vaguely hinted at backstory of the Giver and the Chief Elder are right there in front of us, but we get none of that. Director Philip Noyce (Salt, 2010) also includes a noticeably heavy dose of voiceover. I suppose Jonas is unable to engage his friends in a dialogue about his new visions, yet this would have been an effective time to allow the Giver on screen some more. Instead, Jonas merely talks to us while roaming around the Community or speaking over a montage.
Visually, the Community comes across as stale and mundane as it is intended to be. The first half of the film is shot in black and white because that is how Jonas sees the world. Incrementally, we receive hints and hues of the color spectrum; we move along with Jonas’s abilities. The best looking set is the Giver’s lair. There is a large circular floor surrounded by floor to ceiling bookshelves looking out across the fogged over ‘Elsewhere’. This is a setting I wish we spent more time in discussing the philosophical issues which are buzzing all around Jonas which he is not really addressing.
A film reviewer friend of mine put what I am trying to say in perspective; look at the movie poster. The teenagers are up front and in color. The two Oscar winners, Bridges and Streep, as well as the movie’s most interesting characters, are in the back, blurred, faded, and in black and white. The Giver is about kids learning there is more to life and then fighting back. That is why it never takes off and fails to show the audience nothing we haven’t seen before.
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