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20 years ago, Lois Lowry's dystopian YA novel "The Giver" won the Newberry Medal. Creepy and prophetic, told in a kind of flat-affect voice, it has been a staple in middle-school literature curriculum ever since, introducing young students to sophisticated ethical and moral concepts that will help them recognize its precedents when they come to read the works of George Orwell or Aldous Huxley. Jeff Bridges has been attached as a producer to the film project for almost 20 years, and finally, "The Giver" is here, with Bridges in the title role. Directed by Phillip Noyce, with an adaptation of the book by Michael Mitnick , "The Giver" gives us the overall structure of Lowry's original work, adds a couple of understandable details like a sweet little romance and then derails into an action movie in its final sequence, complete with attacks from the air and a hi-tech command center. Children have been thrilled by the book for 20 years, and a chase scene still proved irresistible. Despite a truly pained performance from Jeff Bridges and a beautifully imagined, three-dimensional futuristic world, "The Giver," in wanting to connect itself to more recent YA franchises, sacrifices subtlety, inference and power.

"The Giver" takes place in a community at some point in the indeterminate future where "Sameness" is prized above all else. Multiple factors have gone into creating a monochromatic world (literally, colors have been erased) where individuality is crushed, a citizen's every move is monitored from the moment of birth, natural families have been replaced by artificial "family units" and choice has vanished. A soothing voice makes passive-aggressive scolding announcements over loudspeakers. The Giver's cavernous dwelling, perched on the edge of a cliff, is a gloomy and masterful set, overlooking the clouds gathered below, making The Giver appear like Citizen Kane, holed up in his mansion surrounded by accumulated possessions and raw pain.

"Precision of language" is enforced, and so people are constantly apologizing and saying "I accept your apology" to each other, but in a rote way that drains the language of meaning. "The Giver" is a cautionary tale about what happens when language is controlled and limited—ground well covered for all time in "1984"—where citizens have no language available to them outside of "newsspeak." Memories are gone, too, in "The Giver". One person in the Community is chosen to be "The Receiver" of a collective memory, memories of now-extinct experiences like love and war and sex and pain. Through the course of the film, the young Jonas ( Brenton Thwaites ), chosen to be the next Receiver, is introduced to complexity and emotion and his entire concept of the world as he knows it shatters. He must now make a choice: to stay or to flee. It's a powerful set-up, made even more stark by Noyce's choice to film the majority of the film in black-and-white. When Jonas starts to see colors again, there are unavoidable " Pleasantville " connections.

Jonas is raised in a family unit, with Katie Holmes and Alexander Skarsgård acting as parental units. He has two best friends, Fiona ( Odeya Rush ) and Asher ( Cameron Monaghan ), and they are about to "graduate from childhood," and take on their assigned jobs in the community. There is a gigantic ceremony, led by the Chief Elder (Meryl Streep, who shows up as a holograph the size of a building), and each child is called to the stage to receive their assignments. The entire community gathers in a massive stadium, everyone dressed in identical white, so it looks like a gigantic celestial choir or a formal-dress LGAT workshop. Everyone speaks in unison. Everyone claps the same way. Everyone looks forward. No one moves. The effect is eerie.

Jonas is surprised when he is not assigned a job at all. He is, instead, "selected" to be the next Receiver, because he apparently has the ability to "see beyond." He has no idea what that means. Jeff Bridges, who becomes The Giver once a new Receiver is chosen, sits in the front row of the stadium, grim and remote. The thousands of people present start to chant in a repetitive whisper, "Jonas … Jonas … Jonas …"

The training sessions, when they come, are part Mr. Miyagi, part vision quest, and part "Quantum Leap." The Giver bombards Jonas with memories from all of humanity, memories that thrust Jonas into the thick of the action: he feels snow falling for the first time, he is shown the full spectrum of colors, he is given shaky-cam experiences of war, he also dances around a Maypole with a saucy wench while wearing a pirate shirt. There are multiple quick-shot montage sequences of smiling babies, praying Muslims, crashing waves, paper lanterns, crying elderly people. The music swells, pushing the emotions on us, but the montages have the opposite effect intended. Instead of revelatory glimpses of the rich tapestry of human experience, they seem like Hallmark-collages uploaded on YouTube. Noyce has also made the questionable choice to co-opt real-world events, and so suddenly we see Tieneman Square in the montage, or the Arab Spring, or Nelson Mandela. It's cheap, hoping to ride the coattails of others, as opposed to finding a visual form and style that will actually express the strength of the human spirit.

Jonas begins to look around him with new eyes. He wants to kiss Fiona. He wants to have the choice to feel things that may be unpleasant. He is not allowed to share his training with others.

The young actors in the film are pretty nondescript, the lead included, although Thwaites seems to come alive in mischievous ways when he starts to take care of a fussy newborn who can't stop crying at night. Holmes and Skarsgård are both strange and unplaceable, playing human beings whose emotions are entirely truncated. "Precision of language, please," says Mother at the dinner table when one of her children starts to speak. Bridges galumphs across the screen, a madman out of Melville, tormented, lonely, in and out of reality. His memories sometimes flatten him. There is one moment where he tells Jonas what the word is for the "feeling between people," and his eyes burn with pain and loss as he says, "Love. It's called love." It's the only powerful moment in the film. His emotion is so palpable it reaches off the screen and grips your throat.

The use of heavy explanatory voiceover to open and close the film is disappointing, especially since a couple of lines have been added to the famous last paragraph of the book. Not surprisingly, the lines added remove it from the moody ambiguous statement of hope that it is in the book, and turn it into a complete platitude. We've heard it a hundred times before. It emanates Sameness with every word.

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O'Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master's in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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The Giver (2014)

Rated PG-13 for a mature thematic image and some sci-fi action/violence

Jeff Bridges as The Giver

Meryl Streep as Chief Elder

Brenton Thwaites as Jonas

Alexander Skarsgård as Jonas's father

Katie Holmes as Jonas' mother

Odeya Rush as Fiona

Cameron Monaghan as Asher

Taylor Swift as Rosemary

Phillip Noyce
Michael Mitnick
Robert B. Weide

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‘the giver’: film review.

Lois Lowry's 1993 bestselling novel enters the YA-movie marketplace

By THR Staff

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An agreeable YA riff on Orwell — via Logan’s Run — topped with the kind of magic-transformative baloney that passes for an ending in too many otherwise-fine Hollywood adventures, Phillip Noyce ‘s The Giver greets a man-made Utopia with the eternal question: “If you can’t feel , what’s the point?” Lois Lowry’s 1993 Newbery Medal-winning source novel has been substantially altered here, mostly in ways that nudge it toward other chosen-one teen fantasies set in restrictive futuristic worlds ( Divergent being one of the most recent). The changes, which include making the book’s 12-year-old hero old enough to make tween viewers swoon (he’s played by 25-year-old Aussie Brenton Thwaites ), surely enhance marketability, even if they sand some edges off a tale that has won many hearts over the years. The presence of Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep in supporting roles will help draw some attention from grown-ups who don’t know the book, but while the film may see enough success to justify follow-ups (Lowry has written three sequels), this franchise won’t come close to competing with The Hunger Games and other more epic series.

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Film Review: ‘The Giver’

What Lois Lowry hath given in her bestselling YA novel, this flaccid screen adaptation taketh away.

By Scott Foundas

Scott Foundas

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'The Giver' Review: Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep Populate Teen Dystopia Drama

Sameness, the conformist plague that afflicts the futuristic citizens of Lois Lowry’s celebrated and scorned YA novel, “The Giver,” might also be the name given to what ails the movie adaptation — the latest in a seemingly endless line of teen-centric dystopian fantasies that have become all but indistinguishable from one another. A longtime passion project for producer/star Jeff Bridges , “The Giver” reaches the screen in a version that captures the essence of Lowry’s affecting allegory but little of its mythic pull — a recipe likely to disappoint fans while leaving others to wonder what all the fuss was about. Any hopes by co-producers the Weinstein Co. and Walden Media that they might have the next “Hunger Games” (or even “Divergent”) on their hands look to be dashed by lackluster late-summer box office.

Originally published in 1993 (six years before “The Matrix”), Lowry’s novel was itself a patchwork of ideas borrowed from Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Jack Finney and Ray Bradbury in its depiction of totalitarian groupthink masquerading as peaceable utopia. The setting was an unnamed anywhere known only as “the community,” whose residents had achieved a post-Platonic, post-Marxist ideal of a classless, conflict-free (and, though not explicitly stated, seemingly race-free) society through the chemical suppression of emotion and the erasure of all suspect stimuli (including books, colors, weather, and sex) from the historical record. Exempt from this rigorous burning of the past was one man: the Receiver of Memory, a grizzled community elder charged with keeping all human experience from time immemorial catalogued inside his own understandably addled brain.

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If Lowry’s ideas weren’t anything new to genre buffs or sociology majors, what made her book so compulsively readable was the lucid simplicity of its prose and the surprising complexity of its arguments (especially for a novel aimed at children). Unlike a lot of speculative fiction, “The Giver” wasn’t a cautionary tale about nuclear or environmental apocalypse, but rather an envisaging of the even greater horror show we might effect through our ostensibly best impulses: to rid society of war, famine and other forms of suffering. It was a highly adaptable metaphor for any form of organized rhetoric, be it that of the religious right or the bleeding-heart left. And, taking a page from J.D. Salinger, Lowry didn’t just suggest that most adults were duplicitous phonies, but that they were capable of secretly murdering babies and the elderly without batting an eye. (Little wonder that “The Giver” was said to be banned from almost as many schools as made it compulsory reading.)

In bringing the book to the screen, director Phillip Noyce and screenwriters Michael Mitnick and Robert B. Weide have stayed reasonably faithful to the plot and characters while jettisoning much of the philosophical weight and making other, perhaps inevitable concessions to commerce. A mere 12 years old on the page, Lowry’s nonconformist hero, Jonas, is here played by the 25-year-old Australian actor Brenton Thwaites , while the incidental character of the community’s Chief Elder has been padded out into a ghoulish, Nurse Ratched-esque villain role for Meryl Streep (who appears alternately in real and holographic form, and seems equally disembodied in each). And with only partial success, Noyce, who’s long been one of the best action directors around (“Patriot Games,” “Clear and Present Danger,” “Salt”), tries to turn Lowry’s elegant, open-ended climax into a large-scale setpiece involving speeding motorbikes, drone aircraft and storm-trooper thugs rounding up dissidents into a Guantanamo-like prison.

The movie begins well enough, with our introduction to the community and its functional “dwellings” where Jonas lives with his dutiful but distant parents ( Alexander Skarsgard and Katie Holmes ) and younger sister, Lily (Emma Tremblay). Working on a modest budget, production designer Ed Verreaux and costume designer Diana Cilliers have given the film the spare, modular look of mid-century modernism — a feeling further enhanced by Noyce’s decision to shoot almost the entire first 30 minutes of the movie in low-contrast black-and-white, with color only gradually seeping into the frames as Jonas learns to “see beyond” (a variation on the technique employed by the 1998 “Pleasantville,” which itself may have been influenced by Lowry).

From there, “The Giver” goes on to chart the developing bond between the Receiver (Bridges) and Jonas, who has been selected to inherit the great storehouse of memory and carry on the older man’s legacy. The Receiver is Bridges in full-on stoner Buddha mode — a routine the actor has done so many times now (most recently in “Tron: Legacy”) that it should have descended into self-parody. And yet, Bridges is the most affecting thing in the movie — a man physically and spiritually exhausted by having to carry the emotional weight of the world on his shoulders. The same, unfortunately, can not be said of Thwaites, who barely registered as the young prince in “Maleficent” and makes even less of an impression here. As Jonas takes on ever more of the Receiver’s wisdom and experience, he’s meant to be shaken and stirred, pushed to the very brink of psychological endurance, but Thwaites plays it all with the same unwavering expression of sleepy, dumbstruck awe, more Harry Styles than Harry Potter.

Elsewhere, Israeli newcomer Odeya Rush flashes an entrancing come-hither stare, but otherwise sets off few sparks as the unrequited object of Jonas’ proscribed affections (or “stirrings,” as they’re known in community-speak), while country star Taylor Swift feels like the equivalent of human product placement in a thankless walk-on. But it’s hard to know what exactly to feel for Holmes, who’s casting as exactly the kind of dead-eyed Stepford wife the tabloids proffered during the TomKat years seems like someone’s idea of a cruel joke.

This year at the movies has given us two superior dystopia tales — “The Lego Movie” and “Snowpiercer” — rich in the kind of real emotion “The Giver” talks about a lot but never achieves. Instead, the more vibrant experience supposedly flows into the movie, the more canned everything seems. In the novel, Lowry conveyed the Receiver’s transmitted memories as indelible fragments of primal experience: the feeling of sun and snow against bare skin; the suffering of an innocent animal; the aftermath of a bloody combat. Noyce gives us those sensations, too, but he isn’t content to stop there, amping up Jonas’ visions into frenetic montages of global chaos and togetherness that feel like a cross between a Microsoft ad and a Save the Children infomercial. Skydivers plummet from dizzying heights, river rafters navigate raging rapids, the Berlin Wall crumbles and Tiananmen Square revolts. All that’s missing is a Peter Gabriel song.

Reviewed at Dolby 88, New York, Aug. 11, 2014. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 97 MIN.

Production: A Weinstein Co. release presented with Walden Media of a Tonik/As Is Prods. production in association with Yucaipa Films. Produced by Nikki Silver, Jeff Bridges, Neil Koenigsberg. Executive producers, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Dylan Sellers, Ron Burkle, Alison Owen, Ralph Winter, Scooter Braun.
Crew: Directed by Phillip Noyce. Screenplay, Michael Mitnick, Robert B. Weide, based on the novel by Lois Lowry. Camera (color, widescreen), Ross Emery; editor, Barry Alexander Brown; music, Marco Beltrami; music supervisor, Dana Sano; production designer, Ed Verreaux; supervising art director, Shira Hockman; art director, Catherine Palmer; set decorator, Andrew McCarthy; costume designer, Diana Cilliers; sound, Nico Louw; supervising sound editors, Philip Stockton, Paul Hsu; re-recording mixers, Paul Hsu, Michael Barry; visual effects supervisor, Robert Grasmere; visual effects producer, Paul V. Molles; visual effects, Method Studios, Mr. X Gotham, UPP, Crazy Horse East, The Molecule, Ensemble; ;stunt coordinators, Cordell McQueen, Frank Bare; line producer, Janine van Assen; associate producer/assistant director, Noga Isackson; second unit director, Robert Grasmere; second unit camera, Michael Swan; casting, Mary Vernieu, Venus Kanani.
With: Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Brenton Thwaites, Alexander Skarsgard, Katie Holmes, Taylor Swift, Cameron Monaghan, Odeya Rush, Emma Tremblay, Jefferson Mays.

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THE GIVER Review

Adam's The Giver review for director Philip Noyce's adaptation of the Lois Lowry novel, starring Jeff Bridges, Brenton Thwaites, and Meryl Streep.

Trends come and go in Hollywood with varying degrees of success, and one of the genres that appears to be “in” at the moment is the YA adaptation—specifically films with a dystopian bent. The Hunger Games and Divergent both dealt with young protagonists rebelling against oppressive, authoritarian governments, and while at first glance The Giver may look like a simple cash-in on the trend, the source material predates the current dystopian craze by over a decade. The road to a feature film adaptation of Lois Lowry ’s novel has been long, but it now finally makes it to the screen with producer Jeff Bridges taking on the titular role. However, though the film is surprisingly deft at handling some of the deeper questions raised by the book and boasts a pair of strong lead performances, the adaptation fails to flesh out other aspects of the story, resulting in a rather mixed bag.

The world of The Giver takes place in a society in which all emotions—and, by extension, choice—have been banished. This manifests itself visually in the fact that the entire world is devoid of color, and everyone sees only in black and white. Citizens live in “units” instead of homes, they’ve never heard or understood the word “love”, and at the age of 18, they graduate school and are placed in a profession that best suits their prevailing attributes. The film begins at one such graduation ceremony, as one by one our protagonist Jonas’ ( Brenton Thwaties ) schoolmates are selected by the Chief Elder ( Meryl Streep ) to be nurturers or drone pilots or teachers. But Jonas is skipped over.

Finally, the Chief Elder’s attention turns to Jonas, who lastly has been selected as the Receiver of Memory. This is a unique job and one that comes with much uncertainty, as the specifics regarding the profession are unknown to the community at large. All Jonas knows is that the Receiver holds all memories of human history and acts as an advisor to the chief council. After being given instructions regarding his new profession that defy the way everyone else in the community acts (he is now allowed to lie, for example), Jonas makes his way to the home of the previous Receiver of Memory, who lives at the very edge of their community, isolated from everyone else.

The previous Receiver (Bridges), now called The Giver, is a somewhat jaded individual, and once he starts transferring memories to Jonas, we begin to see why. The memories he holds are of a civilization full of emotions and color, as he introduces Jonas to snow, joy, sadness, loss, war, grief, and so much more. By design, these concepts are alien to the community at large. By removing choice, the elders have created—in their eyes at least—a utopian society without war, famine, or pain. Never knowing what they’ve lost, the citizens go about their daily lives oblivious to how society used to run. As Jonas’ world is upended, he begins to question the restrictive nature of his community and the strict way in which the Chief Elder managers her peoples. Jonas’ eyes are opened to a world full of life, and he begins to take steps towards changing his community forever.

Director Philip Noyce ’s adaptation of Lowry’s novel actually starts out quite strong, as the entire world is drained of color and we see things through Jonas’ eyes. Noyce introduces a compelling narrative and relative newcomer Thwaites holds his own opposite Streep with a quiet, inquisitive confidence, and he surprises by never composing himself as a hero. Jonas is simply following his emotions, doing what he feels is right. The scenes between Thwaites and Bridges in particular are excellent, as there’s a compassion and cautious reluctance behind Bridges’ mentoring that is at odds with Jonas’ thirst for knowledge. These are the scenes in which Noyce delves deep into the central themes of the book, questioning whether the ability to feel joy and love is worth the tradeoff of also experiencing pain and loss.

However, as the plot thickens and the supporting characters are used to motivate Jonas into action, their underdevelopment renders much of his drive implausible. Jonas becomes infatuated with his friend Fiona ( Odeya Rush ), but the character barely registers as memorable so it’s tough to see how Jonas could be so attached, therefore making it difficult to relate to his decision-making. Additionally, the close bond between Jonas and his other friend, Asher ( Cameron Monaghan ), is a necessary drive for another key plot point, but again Asher is too underdeveloped to make the motivation work. The community’s inhabitants are supposed to be devoid of emotion, so it’s a tough task for any actor to accurately portray, but Thwaites manages to be both charming and compelling while Rush and Monaghan come off more as robots than human beings.

As the plot becomes more complicated and the supporting characters become more integral, the film starts to falter. I found myself longing for more scenes between Bridges and Thwaites as the obligatory set pieces started kicking into gear, and the final act comes to a rather unsatisfying and frustratingly simple conclusion. There are a few bright spots in the subplots, such as Alexander Skarsgard ’s portrayal as Jonas’ oblivious yet ever-so-slightly rebellious father, but on the whole the relationship between Jonas and The Giver remains the most compelling part of the film by a wide margin.

Despite the complicated plot and fumbling of the supporting characters, the central dynamic between Bridges and Thwaites as well as Noyce’s handling of the themes are mostly enough to make the film a somewhat enjoyable experience, if not ultimately satisfying. One imagines a lower-budgeted, more introspective film that wasn’t as concerned with competing with other YA franchises might have made for a more engaging story, but such is the necessity in bringing such a property to life in the current moviemaking landscape. To take a note from the story itself, would it be better to not have The Giver at all than to end up with such a mixed bag? I’d like to think the value of Bridges’ performance and the central relationship is worth the tradeoff of the more disappointing aspects of the film. By a hair.

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Movie Reviews

'the giver' strikes old and ominous notes about the dark side of serenity.

Mark Jenkins

Jeff Bridges (left) produces and stars as the title character in The Giver , alongside Australian actor Brenton Thwaites, who plays Jonas, his young apprentice. The Giver is the first film rendition of the popular 1993 young adult novel by Lois Lowry. Courtesy of The Weinstein Co. hide caption

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Arts & life, australian filmmaker phillip noyce gets serious.

It might seem hard to describe The Giver without revealing some of those plot points that touchy suspense fans call "spoilers." But this brisk, deftly art-directed parable is basically unspoilable. Even viewers who know nothing of its source, Lois Lowry's 1993 novel, will be able to anticipate every development.

That's because Lowry's vision of a serene but secretly corrupt future society offers little that wasn't imagined decades earlier in 1984 , Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 . Lowry just cooked such books down for a preteen audience that hasn't read them.

After years of trying, producer and star Jeff Bridges finally got The Giver made because of the success of The Hunger Games and similar tales of noble teens in a world run by manipulative adults. So the first task was aging the novel's protagonist (Jonas, played by Brenton Thwaites) from 12 to 16.

Jonas lives in a community, called "the community," that's any high schooler's vision of hell: It's run by guidance counselors. Where in Divergent the kids were separated into different castes upon graduation, in The Giver they're given specific assignments. None is more specific than Jonas'. He's the new receiver, assigned to learn the real history of humanity from the bearded, avuncular title character (Bridges, clearly enjoying the sound of his own voice).

Katie Holmes (left) and Alexander Skarsgard play Jonas' parents, who support the efforts of The Giver 's dystopian government. David Bloomer/Courtesy of The Weinstein Co. hide caption

Katie Holmes (left) and Alexander Skarsgard play Jonas' parents, who support the efforts of The Giver 's dystopian government.

Among the many questions the movie barely attempts to answer is, why do the positions of giver and receiver exist? The elders, led by an often holographic Meryl Streep, don't want anyone else to know about the bad old days of war, famine and hatred. So why not assign Jonas to flip burgers for the rest of his life, and send the Giver on a long walk off a short pier?

Because, of course, there is violence just beneath the community's veneer of calm. That's one of the alarming if unsurprising things Jonas learns once he starts receiving — and stops taking his daily dose of mood controller. As in the substantially more macho Equilibrium , ingestion of a Valium-like drug is required. This relaxant suppresses emotion and individuality, and even its users' ability to distinguish color. So the first part of The Giver is in black and white, like Pleasantville .

If the movie hits ominous notes, they've all been heard many times before: There are no books or music in the futuristic planned community, human reproduction is controlled by the state, kissing is unknown, and families are not genetically related. Jonas has merely been assigned to his father (Alexander Skarsgard) and mother (a drawn-faced Katie Holmes).

To make it less of a kiddie story, director Phillip Noyce and scripters Michael Mitnick and Robert B. Weide have added romance (Jonas has the unauthorized hots for a classmate played by Odeya Rush) and boosted the action. There are chase scenes — including one on a bike path that's lighted even though people aren't allowed to go out at night — and confrontations. Also modestly exciting are the fragmentary flashbacks to a former receiver, played by Taylor Swift. (She and the community broke up, and they are never ever getting back together.)

Ultimately, Jonas must make a choice, and leave his sterile home for the forbidden outback. It's not a spoiler to reveal that he finds a refuge there. Or that this new abode offers the sort of picture-postcard coziness that could have been simulated by his former community's devious elders.

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Review: ‘The Giver’ Starring Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Brenton Thwaites, Taylor Swift And More

Nikola grozdanovic.

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It wouldn’t be surprising if the current spate of Young Adult film adaptations is met with a degree of resentment by movie-lovers over 18 years old. When the films turn out to be entertaining and worthy of their respective source material (like the “ Harry Potter ” and “ Hunger Games ” franchises), some adults surely wish they could watch with the carefree sensibilities of a fifteen year old. If the film turns out to be a drastically inferior adaptation and is met with a mixed critical reception (“ Beautiful Creatures ,” “ The Mortal Instruments “) the resentment is directed at corporate Hollywood for proffering yet another tasteless, unoriginal, coughed up concept engineered to turn a profit. Of course, “ Twilight ” has spawned its own kind of resentment and grown to become the easiest target of them all. This Friday, the club of YA films admits a new member who will no doubt receive some critical punches.

Phillip Noyce directs “ The Giver ,” based on the best-selling book by Lois Lowry , concerning a young boy coming of age in a futuristic dystopian society. Jonas ( Brenton Thwaites ) is about to graduate from childhood into the role assigned to him by a council of Elders who govern his community. His two best friends, Fiona ( Odeya Rush ) and Asher ( Cameron Monaghan ), inject themselves in the morning, a compulsory activity designed to remove excessive feelings, and words like love, envy, and fear are stricken from everyday vernacular. At the graduation ceremony, the Chief Elder ( Meryl Streep ) appears as a hologram to assign everyone their roles and thank all the children for their childhood. Asher becomes a drone pilot, Fiona is delegated the role of nurturer, and Jonas is signaled out to be the next Receiver of Memories. He will have to undergo intense training with the current Receiver, whose role now defaults to The Giver ( Jeff Bridges ,) as he takes in all of humanity’s memories in order to become something resembling a future guidance councilor for the government.

Once Jonas shifts from learning all the tiny joys life can bring (the sensation of snow falling on skin, the thrills of sledding) to reliving the happiest moments of various citizen’s lives, he becomes curious as to why day-to-day human existence changed. This is when the concept of Sameness is introduced; the governing ideology has forbidden anything that could represent difference, thus eliminating any possibilities of discrimination and envy. The Giver has been known to disappoint the Elders in the past, so the Chief Elder takes an interest, especially when Jonas tries to share all of these new feelings with his family, and develops a crush on Fiona. As he continues to go through the same routines with his law-abiding parents ( Katie Holmes and Alexander Skarsgård ,) Jonas quickly realizes that the Elders have it all wrong and that he’s the only one with the knowledge and courage to change things.

So the story is relentlessly rudimentary and it’s directed in an expected, uncomplicated, formulaic manner. With a brief 90 minutes running time, you end up feeling like “The Giver” isn’t concerned with making this dystopian community all that believable. Children’s toys are referred to as “comfort objects,” every bicycle wheel comes with an identical white filling to hide the individual spokes, and etiquette (centered around people apologizing and accepting apologies) snuffs out any potential conflict before it’s even implied, but you still feel like an extra half an hour could have been put to good use in explaining why this cowardly new world was engineered as such. It would’ve also been easier to get behind our hero Jonas if we understood what exactly made him special, as opposed to making him special just… because. Despite these missteps, ‘The Giver’ should still be pleasing to the specific target audience to whom it’s aimed.

The adult casting for the project feels right on the money; Bridges (who is also a producer here, this being his longtime passion project) and Streep are perfectly pitted against each other, representing two drastically opposing views on humanity. Neither is challenged here, but the presence of both elevates the picture to a comfortably sophisticated level. Skarsgård and Holmes are perfectly cast as vapid pawns of the system, and the three young actors do a decent job without impressing in the same way Jennifer Lawrence or Daniel Radcliffe did with their respective franchises. The art deco sets and cinematography, two crucial elements, come courtesy of Ed Verreux and Ross Emery, and they both make the colorless community and plasticized environment suitably lifeless.

Ultimately, it will be up to the readers and Lowry loyalists to determine whether Noyce and his team captured the spirit of the books. As far as YA films go, it’s not breaking any new ground but neither should it be criticized too harshly for its simplicity. It’s a film for teenagers: Before children are old enough to watch and understand dystopian films like “ A Clockwork Orange ” or “ Equilibrium ,” ‘The Giver’ should be a good way to start learning about the value of choices, the importance of memories, and the power of love. For all the adults among us who find that as cheesy as it sounds, we’ll always have “ 1984 .” [B-]

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The Giver Review

25 Jun 2014

NaN minutes

Nearly 20 years in development, Lois Lowry’s YA classic arrives neutered by familiarity: another dystopia, another Chosen One. There’s life in Jeff Bridges’ hippy “mind” mentor. The drama, however, is as sterile and glassy-eyed as the world it’s trying to escape.

Movies | 02 07 2015

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The Giver – first look review: Utopia isn't all it's cracked up to be, again

Phillip Noyce’s futureworld looks great and despite a dodgy script and some familiar tropes it gets the essentials right

Jeff Bridges tells Comic-Con of struggle to get Lois Lowry’s The Giver filmed

T he Giver film, based on the popular young adult novel published in 1993, is a healthy mix of Brave New World, Foundation, Fahrenheit 451, Logan’s Run, 1984 and several other sci-fi treatises. But in addition to these classic works, the film can’t escape some of the Young Adult film tropes we’ve been inundated with of late, right down to the love triangles and power of destiny. As such, many of the plot mechanics, as opposed to headier social science themes, feel familiar, and this isn’t a good thing.

Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) lives in a Garden of Epcot, a perfect classless society in a future with no war, no hunger and where it hardly every rains. Everyone’s crisp white clothing and polite, sunny demeanour comes, of course, at a cost unknown to them. The citizens of this utopia are actually being drugged, constantly observed and the glorious culture only works, it’s discovered, due to a complex system of cruel eugenics and euthanasia. The Giver’s kick, however, is that the Community’s elders (led by Meryl Streep, who, unfortunately, gets little screen time, and what she does is via future-Skype) aren’t even sure themselves just how they are oppressing the citizenry. The powerful know they are pulling strings in an abstract sense, but are still wilfully (and blissfully) ignorant of specifics. You see, at some point after a devastating war, this society was built in such a way that knowledge of history would be verboten . All that exists is equanimity and sameness.

But someone along the way recognised that running things, even a controlled society, can be difficult. We need the wisdom of history in order to learn from our past. Thus one chosen individual is the Receiver of Memory, a living, breathing Wikipedia, the only person in town who knows about snow or laughing puppies or piano concertos. Or kissing. The flip side is, he’ll be the one who knows about death, violence and loss.

Jeff Bridges, bearded and working some inscrutable funny accent, is the current Receiver, but Jonas is the next Chosen One. The bulk of the movie dives in to explore the corners of this slightly familiar (Logan’s Run’s “Carousel” is just called “Elsewhere”) but still fascinating set-up. One can easily see why this is such a popular book, especially with teens roiling with angst and hoping to lash out at society. Young Jonas broods at home and around his former classmates and actually wouldn’t be wrong if he shouted “none of you understand me!” But he’s a good kid and he soon realises that his destiny lies in tearing the system down.

Phillip Noyce, whose better films include Dead Calm, Rabbit-Proof Fence and Salt, exploits a nice gimmick rooted in the story’s mythos. Those fully entrenched in the community (let’s call it Giverdale) see everything in black and white, but as sensei Bridges starts mind-melding with Jonas, colour starts to work its way into the frame. Again, this is a trick we’ve seen before (Pleasantville, Zentropa – aka Europa) but if you buy The Giver’s subtext that all of human existence is the repetition and reinterpretation of the same story, these constant feelings of thematic deja vu help it sell the premise.

The Giver is a mid-budget film but it still looks great. There’s still no finer film detailing a futureworld suburbia than Woody Allen’s Sleeper, but the well-lit and nicely maintained parks of The Giver make a good case for a lifestyle of historical ignorance and curated vocabulary. There’s also the recurring three-point visual motif, which extends, naturally, to best bud Asher (Cameron Monaghan) and gal pal Fiona (Odeya Rush). Indeed, Jonas and Fiona meet for secret whispers inside a bit of landscaping that slightly resembles a woman’s pubic triangle, the penetration point being a gush of water that accentuates everyone’s form-fitting clothing.

These pleasures aside, there’s the problem of the script. Some of the dialogue is atrocious. Many times exposition or bright ideas are just dumped on the screen like a harried mother leaving her kids at summer camp. There are some tweaks to the ending not found in the book that really don’t make a whole lot of sense, but work as big movie moments of heightened tension and visual effects. By the end of the movie few won’t be rolling their eyes or checking their watch, but there’s enough that’s fundamentally good in the meat of film not to wholly reject what The Giver is giving us.

Comments have been reopened to coincide with the film’s Australian release.

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The Giver (2014)

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Peter Travers

The film version of The Giver , based on Lois Lowry’s Newberry Medal-winning 1993 novel, moves at the speed of syrup. Make that the speed of syrup from a clogged spout. That’s no way to carry a philosophical message to young adults. But what is? The current onslaught of movies excreted from dystopian teen fiction would make any YA yak. So far, The Hunger Games franchise is working. But catch Divergent, The Host, Ender’s Game , and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and see if you don’t hear yourself scream: Make. It. Stop.

Still, I harbored a faint hope for The Giver because Lowry’s novel pretty much got there first and it wasn’t half bad. She wrote of a futuristic society that terminated pain, starvation, suffering and war by stifling emotion and making everyone and everything worship as the altar of Sameness. Sounds like Hollywood Philosophy 101 in the here and now.

Yet The Giver comes to the screen radiating earnestness. Aussie director Phillip Noyce ( Dead Calm, Rabbit-Proof Fence, The Quiet American ) is far from a hack. Even his paycheck films ( Clear and Present Danger, Salt ) show little patience for bullshit.

The Giver is also a passion project for its Oscar-winning star Jeff Bridges, who optioned the rights in 1995 to star his father, Lloyd, who died three years later. Now the reliably soulful Bridges, 64, takes the title role of the crusty old guy who gets to hold memories of the past in all their beauty and terror. Meryl Streep, in a very scary wig, show up as the Chief Elder, a villain who gets rid of anything old or in the way and makes sure that what The Giver knows won’t leak out. Except, of course, to his replacement. That would be Jonas, a child of the new society (raised by parent figures played by Katie Holmes and Alexander Skarsgård) who is ready to take whatever assignment he’s, um, given. It’s a humdinger. Jonas’s burden is to be The Receiver of the Giver’s knowledge.

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Let’s stop here a second. In the novel, Jonas was 11 years old. Onscreen, he’s played by Brenton Thwaites, 24. The givers in Hollywood know that the leads in movies need to be swoon worthy. So his friends, Fiona (Odeya Rush) and Asher (Cameron Monaghan), are now played by actors past jailbait age. Whew! Pop star Taylor Swift, 24, has a cameo as a pre-Jonas Receiver who didn’t work out. What? I’ll never tell.

As Jonas receives memories of color, art, music, literature, fashion, fun and sex, the film’s palette replaces dull gray with rainbow oomph. I’m not kidding. The Giver is obvious like that, also dull and remote. The biggest culprit is the script by Michael Mitnick and Robert B. Weide, who are clearly Receivers of every cliché in the Hollywood book. Lowry took chances with her novel. The movie of The Giver takes none. It’s safe, sorry and a crashing bore.

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THE MOVIE CULTURE

The Giver Review: An Unusual Sci-Fi Movie

The Giver is a 2014 American social science fiction film directed by Phillip Noyce and starring Jeff Bridges, Brenton Thwaites, Odeya Rush, Meryl Streep, Alexander Skarsgård, Katie Holmes, Cameron Monaghan, Taylor Swift, and Emma Tremblay.The film is based on the 1993 young adult novel of the same name by Lois Lowry.

The Giver Film Cast

Jeff Bridges as The Giver
Brenton Thwaites as Jonas
Odeya Rush as Fiona
Alexander and James Jillings as Gabriel
Katie Holmes as Jonas’ mother
Meryl Streep as The Chief Elder
Alexander Skarsgård as Jonas’ father
Cameron Monaghan as Asher
Taylor Swift as Rosemary
Emma Tremblay as Lily
Thabo Rametsi as Robbie

The Giver Movie Plot

Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) lives in a seemingly idyllic world of conformity and contentment. When he begins to spend time with The Giver (Jeff Bridges), an old man who is the sole keeper of the community’s memories, Jonas discovers the dangerous truths of his community’s secret past.

Armed with the power of knowledge, Jonas realizes that he must escape from their world to protect himself and those he loves – a challenge no one has ever completed successfully.

The Giver Movie Review

This film is based on the 1993 young adult novel of the same name by Lois Lowry. This film doesn’t really completely according to the book , the book is better than the film but if you haven’t read the book then well you’ll love this film. The plot of the film goes something like this, Following a calamity referred to as The Ruin, society has been reorganized.

Conflict, pain, and suffering have been mostly removed from human experience. However, emotion, love, freedom, individuality, and joy have also been removed. Babies are brought into being through genetic engineering, and sexual desire is chemically suppressed.

All memories of the past are held by one person, the Receiver of Memory, to shield the rest of the community from pain. The Receiver of Memory and their protégé are the only people able to see in color, which is otherwise eliminated from the community to prevent envy. The community is ruled by elders, including the Chief Elder.

Jonas is an 18-year-old boy whose best friends are Asher and Fiona. On graduation day, Jonas is told that he will become the next Receiver of Memory and will progressively receive memories from his predecessor, the Giver.

During his training with the Giver, Jonas gradually learns the past and about joy, pain, death, and love. He stops taking his daily injections( which stops him from dreaming and thinking about Fiona who he has feelings for) and begins to experience emotion.

Those who leave the community are said to have been “released to Elsewhere,” but Jonas learns that to be a euphemism for euthanasia by lethal injection.

Jonas also learns that the Giver’s daughter, Rosemary, had preceded Jonas as Receiver of Memory. When she began her training, however, Rosemary became so distraught from the memories that she received that she asked to be “released.”

Jonas learned the memories received from the Giver and accidentally shares his memories with a baby, Gabriel, who was brought home by his father. He develops a close relationship with Gabriel after he discovers that they share a birthmark, the mark of a potential Receiver of Memory, and both can see in color.

Appalled by the deception of his community and the Elders’ disregard for human life, Jonas comes to believe that everyone should have memories of the past. Eventually, the Giver and Jonas decide that the only way to help the community is for Jonas to travel past the border of their land to “Elsewhere.” Doing so would release memories and color back into the community.

When Jonas tries to leave his neighborhood, he encounters Asher, who tries to stop Jonas but is punched by Jonas. Jonas retrieves Gabriel, who is to be “released” for having failed to meet developmental marker, at the Nurturing Center.

Meanwhile, Jonas’s mother and Asher go to the Chief Elder to say that Jonas is missing. Jonas steals a motorcycle and drives away with Gabriel. Asher is assigned by the Chief Elder to use a drone to find Jonas and “lose” him.

When Asher finds Jonas and Gabriel in the desert, Jonas implores Asher to trust him and to let them go. Instead, Asher captures them with the drone but sets them free by dropping them into a river. When he is questioned by the Chief Elder, Asher lies and says that he has followed her orders.

Fiona is condemned to be “released” for helping Jonas. Just as she is about to be “released” by Jonas’s father, the Giver tries to persuade the Chief Elder that the Elders should free the community.

Unmoved by the Giver’s arguments, the Chief Elder asserts that freedom is a bad idea because when they are left to their own devices, people make bad choices. Jonas and Gabriel enter a snowy area.

Jonas falls to the ground and is overcome by the cold weather. However, he sees a sled like the one that he rode in a memory that he received from the Giver. Jonas and Gabriel ride the sled downhill and cross the border into Elsewhere, which frees their community.

That action saves Fiona’s life since Jonas’s father realizes what he is doing and stops short of “releasing” her. Jonas realizes that he has succeeded at his quest.

Jeff Bridges in a still from The Giver film

The Giver Film Music

The score for The Giver was composed by Marco Beltrami.

The song “Ordinary Human” by OneRepublic was featured in the movie. The film also features Tori Kelly’s “Silent”.

The soundtrack was released on August 5, 2014 by Interscope Records.

The Giver Film Critical Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes , the film has an approval rating of 35% based on 160 reviews with an average rating of 5.3/10. The site’s critical consensus reads, “Phillip Noyce directs The Giver with visual grace, but the movie doesn’t dig deep enough into the classic source material’s thought-provoking ideas.”

On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 47 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews.”

Richard Roeper gave the film a “C” and stated that “the magic [of the novel] gets lost in translation”.

The Movie Culture Synopsis

Jeff Bridges initially wanted to film the movie in the mid-1990s, and a script was written by 1998. Various barriers marred the production of the film, including when Warner Bros. bought the rights in 2007.

The rights then ended up at The Weinstein Company and Walden Media. Bridges originally intended that his own father, Lloyd Bridges, would play the title character, The Giver, but he died in 1998.

You will enjoy watching this film , we at TMC would give it a 7/10 even though it’s not completely based on the book. This film is available to watch on Netflix .

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Movie Review: The Giver (2014)

Dan Gunderman
Movie Reviews
8 responses
--> August 18, 2014

The Giver (2014) by The Critical Movie Critics

Passing of knowledge.

Suppose the ultimate version of Nostradamus was thrown onto the silver screen. Now suppose that his specialty was not simply predicting the future, but also holding and carrying the knowledge of all mankind. This is the basic premise to Phillip Noyce’s film, The Giver and Jeff Bridges (“ True Grit ”) plays this mix of political adviser, medicine man and tarot card reader with grace and authority.

Alongside Bridges, there is another unexpected Oscar winner in the mix — Meryl Streep (most recent win: “ The Iron Lady ”) — who lays down the law as Chief Elder. Her eerie bangs and drab look fervidly command the screen, especially as she’s seen in hologram, appearing in people’s homes without warning and full of apologies (her many unsympathetic “sorry’s” eventually irritate). With exemplary performances from the A-listers in hand and the conceptual wherewithal of the project, The Giver becomes a watchable film with a fair amount of staying power although Noyce’s product is not so much commendable for the way it unfolds the narrative, but for the visual efficacy and ambitiousness of concept.

The Giver , based off of the Lois Lowry Newbery Medal-winning, young adult novel of the same name, follows Jonas (Brenton Thwaites, “ Maleficent ”), a boy of 18 (12 in the book) who is graduating from a program in a creepy commune-like land and is ready to earn a role with the adults. While his friends Asher (Cameron Monaghan, “ Vampire Academy ”) and Fiona (Odeya Rush, “ The Odd Life of Timothy Green ”) get chosen for jobs, Jonas is passed up. He is informed by the Chief Elder that he will soon be the Receiver of Memory, a position currently held by The Giver (Bridges). Both men have distinct markings on their arms, so when they touch, The Giver is able to transfer an assortment of human memories to the young man who does not yet know feeling or emotion. He, along with all the others, cannot even see color. Day by day, The Giver, who does see the spectrum, play music and has the capacity to love, transfers the primal, human memories to Jonas, who soon realizes the society in which he lives may not be so Utopian after all.

Possible love?

Clocking in at a relatively short 94 minutes, a good portion of the film is in black in white which could easily throw off unsuspecting viewers. Wisely, however, as the discovery of what it is to be alive and the history of the world begin to slowly unfold, cinematographer, Ross Emery, introduces more and more color to what can be best described as a sterile existence. And as this occurs, the music from Marco Beltrami’s score enhances the emotion attached to the unearthing in a genuine way.

This focus helps to see past the very average performances from Thwaites, Rush and Monaghan. They’re not so bad that it’s a distraction but when the likes of Katie Holmes (“ The Son of No One ”) and Alexander Skarsgård (“ Battleship ”) as Jonas’ mother and father, and Taylor Swift (“ The Lorax ”) as the preceding Receiver of Memory can upstage with limited ability in smaller roles it’s noticeable.

There’s also plot holes a plenty and unanswered questions (which may find answers if further books in the series are adapted) that keep The Giver from ascending as high as it could have. Nonetheless, it is an admirable undertaking, especially when one considers the abundance of similar dystopian themed YA titles in and out of the hopper. It is not always best, as the film preaches and practices, to conform.

Tagged: dystopia , memory , novel adaptation

Dan is an author, film critic and media professional. He is a former staff writer for the N.Y. Daily News, where he served as a film/TV reviewer with a "Top Critic" designation on Rotten Tomatoes. His debut historical fiction novel, "Synod," was published by an independent press in Jan. 2018, receiving praise among indie book reviewers. His research interests include English, military and political history.

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'Movie Review: The Giver (2014)' have 8 comments

August 18, 2014 @ 4:36 pm Nice-4-Soup

I loved the book so I’m not going to chance ruining it by seeing the movie.

August 18, 2014 @ 6:02 pm Henry Chamberlain

The universe would cease to exist if Katie Holmes outperformed anyone. And since this obviously did not happen, your observation is proved false.

August 18, 2014 @ 6:37 pm office of surrealist investigations

ENOUGH WITH THE TEENAGE DYSTOPIA.

August 18, 2014 @ 7:10 pm Rojo

Brenton Thwaites was unconvincing as a person experiencing new sensations for the first time. Ruins the whole movie since his awakening is at the heart of the movie.

August 18, 2014 @ 8:22 pm Neoglitch

At least Jeff Bridges is good.

August 18, 2014 @ 10:56 pm drakeca89

Although I’m technically a young adult, I’m tired of the young adult adapts.

August 19, 2014 @ 2:40 am Leveling

Thought it was very middle of the road. There’s a lot good about it like the visuals and ideas, and there is a lot not so good about it like some of the acting and the ending.

September 19, 2014 @ 11:22 am Abdulsalam Sinno

“The Giver” Review.

Emotions are what shape our world, our present, past and future. That what the authorities would take away from their citizens to have them controllable, or that what “The Giver” wishes to make us aware of. Memories what bring about emotions. If you cannot remember, you cannot sense. How could you love a person you never saw?

In a hypothetical world, “The Giver” narrates a story of a seeming isolated community. Citizens are taught they are equal, in nourishment, duties, language, medications and their dwellings. The community seems utopian, or heavenly if I may say. However, as events go on, suspicions come out bit by bit. Elderly rule the society. People are categorized after graduation, based on their merits. One, the chosen, is allowed to receive the memory of the past, and keep it within to provide wisdom for elderly, the rulers, whenever needed. The giver is the one who transmits history via physically attached sessions of meditation every other day.

The chosen receiver, while obtaining memories of the past, starts re-collecting emotions he loses through daily injections- every citizen is exposed to- thought curative as told. As he retrieves his memories, he feels what a real human can be. He experiences love, joyousness, music, habits and colors. It doesn’t look weird for an isolated community not to experience the said qualities, as they were never introduced, but extracted. It was enjoyable experiencing what a life could be with qualities such love, happiness and what have you. That said, Jonas, the receiver, was badly dreaded when he witnessed the other part of the story. War, as depicted in a killing scene, was not as lovely, but displayed voraciousness and brutality of humanity.

The elderly claim that people will always choose wrong. Thus, communities have to be isolated from their own nature, and should be nurtured emotionless. However, could a man, who sees the real version, stay put and never attempts to change? Would a rebellious impulse originate to set a confrontation mode against an artificially constructed community?

“The Giver” attempts to reflect the trade-off between equality and freedom. Who favor which and why? Politically, psychologically, philosophically and sociologically driven film is rich with ideas dawning viewers’ minds. Noteworthy movies are to be considered as source of knowledge if read well. “The Giver” is one of those!

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Common sense media reviewers.

Pain makes life colorful in dystopian adaptation.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The movie's themes and messages echo the book&

The Giver is a complicated character because he se

Jonas punches his friend in the face after a confr

Some hand holding, longing looks, and a couple of

No language, since in the community, people don

Positive Messages

The movie's themes and messages echo the book's: how Sameness has eradicated personal expression, how conformity is a threat to individuality, how having no choices for the sake of equality is really oppression, and more. The movie also tackles the tough subject of whether pain is necessary for joy and whether love and heartbreak are preferable to stability and community.

Positive Role Models

The Giver is a complicated character because he seems so sad and unhappy, but it's for an understandable reason. He's patient and teaches Jonas and encourages him to see the world for how it really is.

Violence & Scariness

Jonas punches his friend in the face after a confrontation. Two people await lethal injection. An entire society has no idea that the term "releasing" means killing, so when a man "releases" a baby, or a group is told they're being "released," no one but Jonas and the Giver know what's happening. The Giver and Jonas have violent, disturbing dreams and visions of past horrors.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Some hand holding, longing looks, and a couple of kisses. Discussion of how the community handles adolescent "stirrings."

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No language, since in the community, people don't curse.

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Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that the The Giver is a dystopian thriller based on author Lois Lowry's best-selling 1993 novel (which has sparked some controversy since its publication and landed on some banned-book lists). Since the novel is commonly used in middle school classrooms, the adaptation will appeal to tweens and teens who've read and loved it. Although there are some fundamental changes from the book (like the age of Jonas, the main character), the movie shares the book's central themes about the things that make life worth living, even if they're painful. The violent revelations are disturbing, especially ugly truths about what it means when citizens (including a baby) are "released into Elsewhere," but the movie isn't nearly as violent as comparable movies like The Hunger Games or Divergent . Like the movie, the book should launch some thoughtful conversations about totalitarianism, freedom of expression, and why utopian societies fail. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

Parents say (28)
Kids say (106)

Based on 28 parent reviews

This movie is definitely one to watch at your next Family Movie Night with your 9+ year old!!!

Emotionally intense, disturbing violent images, what's the story.

THE GIVER takes place in a futuristic utopian society called "the community," where, at age 16, residents prepare for their coming-of-age ceremony, where they're assigned a specific job -- like birth mother, nurturer, teacher, or security. Jonas ( Brenton Thwaites ) is surprised when, at the Ceremony for Advancement, the Chief Elder ( Meryl Streep ) announces that Jonas has been selected as the newest Receiver of Memory -- the one person in the community to understand all the pain and truths that the rest of the society is spared. His teacher will be The Giver of Memory ( Jeff Bridges ), who will impart all of his knowledge. But as Jonas begins his sessions with The Giver, he also starts seeing things as they really are, not as the community wants them to be -- he sees in color (everyone else sees in black and white) and develops feelings for his friend, Fiona ( Odeya Rush ). Worst of all, Jonas realizes that life with pain is preferable to the "Sameness" on which the community is based.

Is It Any Good?

This is an adaptation worth seeing, particularly for the conversations you can have once the credits roll. As anyone who has read Lois Lowry's source novel will immediately notice, the movie's Jonas is five years older than he is in the book (and Thwaites was actually already in his 20s while filming!), making him a full adolescent as opposed to being on the cusp of puberty. While the aging up works when it comes to focusing on the central romantic subplot, it may upset the tweens and younger teens who related to Jonas' journey precisely because he was their age, not a teen on the brink of adulthood like the majority of young adult protagonists. But more bothersome is the fact that viewers -- unlike readers -- are limited in their connection to the cinematic Jonas and what's going on in the community, because it's not really an action story like Divergent -- it's a story of ideas that's better experienced on the page.

Of all the actors, Alexander Skarsgard (as Jonas' father) does the most subtle work, portraying how, even in such a tightly controlled society, some individuals are more loving and nurturing, even if they don't fully understand what love means. Katie Holmes (as Jonas' mother) and Streep both play unquestioning proponents of Sameness, and Rush sure is beautiful, but because feelings are manipulated in the community, The Giver is not a romance on the swoony level of Katniss and Peeta's or Tris and Four's. The characters in the community, with the exception of Jonas and the Giver, must by their very nature act eerily dispassionate, even-keeled, and neutral about everything -- even throwing a dead baby down a garbage chute. That flatness, which is so freaky in the book, doesn't work quite as well on the screen.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the popularity of dystopian settings in young adult literature and movies. What is it about futuristic stories that appeals to readers and viewers?

How would you describe the violence in this movie? Is it scary? Disturbing? Why? Are there other parts of the movie that are nonviolent but also upsetting? How do they compare?

It took more than 20 years after the book was published for The Giver to hit the big screen. How do you think that timing affected its impact?

Fans of the book: Was the movie a faithful adaptation? What differences did/didn't you like, and which scenes from the book did you miss?

Movie Details

In theaters : August 15, 2014
On DVD or streaming : November 25, 2014
Cast : Alexander Skarsgard , Jeff Bridges , Meryl Streep , Brenton Thwaites
Director : Phillip Noyce
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Weinstein Co.
Genre : Drama
Topics : Book Characters
Run time : 94 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : a mature thematic image and some sci-fi action/violence
Last updated : September 24, 2023

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Review by Brian Eggert August 16, 2014

For some of us, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (1953) was mandatory middle school reading. Nowadays, Lois Lowry’s similarly themed young adult novel The Giver (1993) has become the dystopian text of choice for school curriculums. And while Bradbury’s text was made into a serviceable film by François Truffaut in 1966, the film of Lowry’s text is nowhere near as accomplished. Lowry’s heady exploration into the importance of shared learning and emotion in society through a muted, deeply philosophical narrative, has been exchanged for a paranoid teenage dystopia escape movie, the likes of which we’ve seen before (recently in The Hunger Games and Divergent ). Producer-star Jeff Bridges and director Phillip Noyce ( Salt ) deliver a conceptually interesting production of modest budget and notable castmembers, but the abbreviated runtime of 94 minutes is too long concerned with perpetuating a white-knuckle thriller than embracing the thoughtful discussions of Lowry’s book. But this film review is not just the ranting of a reader devoted to the source material; those unfamiliar with the book will undoubtedly feel plagued by the story’s sense of implausibility as well.

The film opens with voiceover narration from Lowry’s protagonist, Jonas, an 18-year-old boy (played by 25-year-old Australian actor Brenton Thwaites) who introduces us to his colorless world, which, for the first third is presented in black-and-white. The film’s narrator goes on to explain all the ways in which his world is different than ours. There’s no color, art, emotion, lying, platonic relationships, bad weather, war, or expression whatsoever, as the leaders of this isolated flatland community—which, similar to many others like it apparently, rests on a plateau surrounded by clouds—have suppressed such desires through a daily injection. Chemicals inhibit people’s desires and therefore, society can function peacefully, driven by the prevailing desire for peace, safety, and above all, a “sameness” of conduct and even race. And there’s a pointed concern for “precision of language”—as a result, metaphors have disappeared (at least no one will annoyingly misuse “literally” in a figurative sense here, such as “I could literally eat a horse”). But Jonas is different; he can see subdued impressions of color.

From the outset, the film’s biggest mistake is telling us how the setting is disturbingly different from our own, without letting us discover it, piece by piece, by ourselves. Screenwriters Michael Mitnick and Robert B. Weide may have included many scenes from the book, but their treatment, and the film’s approach with a narrator who has the benefit of hindsight to guide his voiceover’s observations, remove much of the surprise and shock that would normally come with many of the story’s most potent revelations. Moreover, the writers clearly have it in mind to make this the next teen phenomenon after Twilight or The Hunger Games , and in turn, fabricate a forbidden love subplot involving Jonas and his friend Fiona (Odeya Rush). All the while, Noyce seems to forget that he’s directing a world in which emotions have been suppressed. The characters, particularly the youngsters, laugh and play and worry without inhibition. The only emotions that appear to have been curtailed are those born in their loins. Once Jonas stops taking his shots and convinces Fiona to do the same, the “stirrings” below the belt return. (Then again, Lowry’s book has Jonas experience some “stirrings” while bathing an elderly woman, which may not have translated well to the screen.)

On this world’s version of graduation day, young adults like Jonas and his peers are assigned their job in the community. But at the ceremony, Jonas is skipped over and singled out. Because of his capacity to “see beyond,” Jonas has been chosen to be “The Receiver of Memory”, a mysterious position now held by a bearded Obi-Wan Kenobi-like figure (Bridges, using his Rooster Cogburn voice, but without the Southern drawl), who, now called “The Giver”, will transfer the vast majority of human memories into Jonas. Why The Receiver is a necessary community function isn’t really made clear in the film, although Lowry’s book suggests he guides the community’s elders, headed here by a resident Big Brother figure called The Chief Elder (Meryl Streep), by offering his insight based on his knowledge of history and human memory. The community has jettisoned all history, memory, and emotion so humankind can keep functioning safely, productively, mindlessly. And so, Jonas begins his training, and his marked ability to see colors is enhanced. Soon he’s feeling all sorts of emotions and can barely contain himself.

This becomes troublesome for The Chief Elder, who carefully monitors Jonas’ progress in fear of another failure, like the one ten years ago that is alluded to throughout. Jonas’ creepy parents, his regulator mother (Katie Holmes, whose casting may have an intentional off-screen parallel), and his baby-nurturing father (Alexander Skarsgård), also show concern that their son is dancing and smiling too much, while his younger sister, Lily (Emma Tremblay), persists as a happy little girl. Meanwhile, The Giver shows Jonas the joys and horrors of humankind before The Ruin—the cataclysm that impelled this world into existence. Passing on the knowledge and wisdom that weigh on him, The Giver encourages Jonas to escape when the young student can no longer bear the strain, or accept how wrong it is for the elders to deny people the basic freedoms of emotion. Before long, the film devolves into a chase sequence, complete with Jonas outrunning The Chief Elder’s motorbike goons and flying drones. It all leads to The Giver pleading to The Chief Elder in a puts-too-fine-a-point-on-it speech about the importance of love, and Jonas’ escape leading to the return of all emotions and history to the community.

As both an adaptation and a stand-alone film, The Giver is something of a mess. The emotional performances are out of touch with what’s supposed to be an unaffected environment, but nothing about this onscreen world is detached. It’s a world whose secrets are shared within the first few scenes, whose unknowns are strewn out for us, and whose sense of discovery is nonexistent. What’s more, Noyce’s conceptual choice to gradually move from black-and-white to color is inconsistent; since the effect is meant to represent Jonas’ perspective, we’re left wondering why there are still visible colors in scenes where Jonas isn’t present. Worst of all, the filmmakers of this modestly budgeted production remove Lowry’s thought-provoking intent from a book that, for some school districts, is potent enough to be banned. But no one will be thinking about the importance of memory and pain, love and history, and their impact on society after the film is over. But no one will be banning The Giver , because it’s not controversial; it’s a fascinating story that’s been reengineered to fit an overexposed, commercially viable Hollywood formula tuned for mass consumption and mindless viewership.

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The Giver
Feb 11, 2022. Rated: 2/5 • Feb 1, 2021. Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) lives in a seemingly idyllic world of conformity and contentment. When he begins to spend time with The Giver (Jeff Bridges), an ...
The Giver
As both an adaptation and a stand-alone film, The Giver is something of a mess. Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 5, 2022. Noyce and company have made a reverent film that both honors its ...
The Giver movie review & film summary (2014)
Despite a truly pained performance from Jeff Bridges and a beautifully imagined, three-dimensional futuristic world, "The Giver," in wanting to connect itself to more recent YA franchises, sacrifices subtlety, inference and power. Advertisement. "The Giver" takes place in a community at some point in the indeterminate future where "Sameness" is ...
The Giver (film)
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 35% based on 172 reviews and an average rating of 5.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Phillip Noyce directs The Giver with visual grace, but the movie doesn't dig deep enough into the classic source material's thought-provoking ideas."
'The Giver' Review: What the Critics Are Saying
Read what top critics are saying about The Giver: The Hollywood Reporter 's film critic John DeFore calls it "an agreeable YA riff on Orwell — via Logan's Run — topped with the kind of ...
The Giver (2014)
The Giver: Directed by Phillip Noyce. With Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Brenton Thwaites, Alexander Skarsgård. In a seemingly perfect community without war, pain, suffering, differences or choices, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man, the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world.
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All The Giver Videos. Added: Photos. See all photos. View HD Trailers and Videos for The Giver on Rotten Tomatoes, then check our Tomatometer to find out what the Critics say.
'The Giver': Film Review
The presence of Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep in supporting roles will help draw some attention from grown-ups who don't know the book, but while the film may see enough success to justify ...
Film Review: 'The Giver'
Film Review: 'The Giver'. Reviewed at Dolby 88, New York, Aug. 11, 2014. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 97 MIN. Production: A Weinstein Co. release presented with Walden Media of a Tonik/As ...
The Giver Review: Jeff Bridges Shines in Otherwise ...
Adam's The Giver review for director Philip Noyce's adaptation of the Lois Lowry novel, starring Jeff Bridges, Brenton Thwaites, and Meryl Streep.
Movie Review: 'The Giver' : NPR
Movie Review: 'The Giver' The film adaptation of Lois Lowry's 1993 novel clearly owes a debt to many other stories for teens and adults, and it struggles to find anything new to say.
Review: 'The Giver' Starring Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Brenton
Review: 'The Giver' Starring Jeff Bridges, ... It wouldn't be surprising if the current spate of Young Adult film adaptations is met with a degree of resentment by movie-lovers over 18 years old.
The Giver
Mixed or Average Based on 33 Critic Reviews. 47. 24% Positive 8 Reviews. 61% Mixed 20 Reviews. 15% Negative 5 Reviews. All Reviews; Positive Reviews; Mixed Reviews; Negative Reviews; 75. ... The adaptation of The Giver is a piece of crap. This movie is like one of those Netflix adaptation memes. Jonas and Fiona literally kissed each other even ...
The Giver Review
Posted: Aug 14, 2014 12:44 pm. The Giver, based on Lois Lowry's Newbery-winning novel, is frankly a little late to the YA party, having arrived after similar movies such as Divergent, The Hunger ...
The Giver Review
12. Original Title: Giver, The. Nearly 20 years in development, Lois Lowry's YA classic arrives neutered by familiarity: another dystopia, another Chosen One. There's life in Jeff Bridges ...
The Giver
T he Giver film, based on the popular young adult novel published in 1993, is a healthy mix of Brave New World, Foundation, Fahrenheit 451, Logan's Run, 1984 and several other sci-fi treatises ...
The Giver (2014)
6/10. promising but doesn't completely deliver. SnoopyStyle 21 May 2015. After the Ruin, the Community was build as an utopia where everybody is the same, emotions are suppressed and memories of the past are restricted. When Jonas turns 18, he's selected to be the community's Receiver of Memories.
The Giver Movie Reviews
The Giver Critic Reviews and Ratings Powered by Rotten Tomatoes Rate Movie. Close Audience Score. The percentage of users who made a verified movie ticket purchase and rated this 3.5 stars or higher. Learn more. Review Submitted. GOT IT. Offers. BUY 1 TICKET, GET 1 FREE image link ...
'The Giver'
The Giver. By Peter Travers. August 15, 2014. The Giver The Weinstein Company. The film version of The Giver, based on Lois Lowry's Newberry Medal-winning 1993 novel, moves at the speed of syrup ...
The Giver Movie Reviews
The Giver Fan Reviews and Ratings Powered by Rotten Tomatoes Rate Movie. Close Audience Score. The percentage of users who made a verified movie ticket purchase and rated this 3.5 stars or higher. Learn more. Review Submitted. GOT IT. Offers SEE ALL OFFERS. EARN 3X LOYALTY REWARD POINTS image link ...
The Giver Review: An Unusual Sci-Fi Movie
The Giver Film Critical Reception. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 35% based on 160 reviews with an average rating of 5.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Phillip Noyce directs The Giver with visual grace, but the movie doesn't dig deep enough into the classic source material's thought-provoking ideas."
Movie Review: The Giver (2014)
Movie review of The Giver (2014) by The Critical Movie Critics | Young adult novel adaptation with a boy selected to carry the ills of the new utopia. ... where he served as a film/TV reviewer with a "Top Critic" designation on Rotten Tomatoes. His debut historical fiction novel, "Synod," was published by an independent press in Jan. 2018 ...
The Giver Movie Review
The movie's themes and messages echo the book&. Positive Role Models. The Giver is a complicated character because he se. Violence & Scariness. Jonas punches his friend in the face after a confr. Sex, Romance & Nudity. Some hand holding, longing looks, and a couple of. Language Not present. No language, since in the community, people don.
The Giver (2014)
For some of us, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953) was mandatory middle school reading.Nowadays, Lois Lowry's similarly themed young adult novel The Giver (1993) has become the dystopian text of choice for school curriculums.And while Bradbury's text was made into a serviceable film by François Truffaut in 1966, the film of Lowry's text is nowhere near as accomplished.

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