Is it better to give than receive?
The Giver’ is the latest in the long line of film adaptations aimed at the angst driven young adult market; the very same genre that belonged to Twilight, Hunger Games, the latest iteration of Spiderman and most recently Diversion.
The movie Divergent is an interesting comparison to make because to be honest, even though Lois Lowry’s novel The Giver was released almost 15 years before Divergent in 1993 to what some would say was more critical acclaim once you have seen Divergent you just can’t watch this film without thinking this is just another version of the same film. To excuse the pun; this film just doesn’t diverge enough.
To be fair it boasts a decorated cast led by Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep and a capable director in Patriot Games’s Phillip Noyce; these key ingredients come together to create an incredible cocktail with what they have. But Meryl Streep in her bad girl role comes across like Kate Winslet’s evil step sister but with a whole lot less ‘aggy’, Jeff Bridges on the other hand is as enigmatic as ever but unable to really breathe given the limitations of his role.
Like many of the aforementioned films The Giver is set years after a cataclysmic event that prompted society to adopt a scheme whereby emotions are stripped and families are assembled based on character traits. When a young person leaves childhood, they are handed pre-determined roles within society. Those that don’t ‘fit’ become outcasts or ‘forgotten’; people can’t lie, the society is fashioned on order and obedience and with power comes control. Now, I don’t know about you but I’ve seen enough film adaptations to know that it is just ripe for someone who thinks differently to challenge the corruption and change the upheld views.
This task falls to none other than Jonas (Brenton Thwaites); chosen to take over the role of receiver of memory from The Giver. He will learn everything about the world before the ‘new world order and utopia’ in order that he has the wisdom to advise the Elders in times of crisis. How will he learn you ask? Is it by reading books, in these types of utopia aren’t books banned? Of course they’re banned, No he learns through ‘mind-melds’ with The Giver, because he needs to ‘experience’ the past. Oooooh I hear you say. That’s exciting. Yes, and it is through these experiences that Jonas learns his new role comes at a cost, you see there is no such thing as love in this life, and no such thing as joy. As such he begins to experience an emotional awakening. Noyce cleverly visualizes Jonas’s epiphany by bleeding colour into black and white images, this happens in such a gradual deliberate way that it almost makes you take a double take, for example he sees the vivid red of an apple, or his love interest’s bright eyes before later seeing the sky full-on blossom into Technicolor.It’s a really nice touch.
This is one of the film’s greatest strengths, by experiencing Jonas relieving the memories of our own history the audience themselves are taken on a journey of the highs and the lows of life. It is there that the connection comes within the film as when he returns each day back to the society the blandness is almost all consuming and it is there you recognise with his plight to change things.
There are some other good supporting roles too. Katie Holmes and Alexander Skarsgård have great turns as Jonas’s parents, whilst Taylor Swift appears in hologram form as a former protégé of The Giver. Unfortunately, none of them are on screen long enough to create much of an impact.
Whilst obviously on a tighter budget than Hunger Games and Divergent, The Giver does well with its production values and costume design. Indeed if Steve Jobs is in charge of architecture up in heaven most would agree it would look like this.
The only thing I thought let the Giver down was its ending; it just lacks that visceral punch of its contemporaries. However, some would argue that it isn’t necessary; this is a touching film about love and identity; about power and responsibility not a movie actioner. It’s a nice film but I can’t help but feel it’s a shame; if this film had come out five or even ten years earlier it would probably be one of those memorable films of a lifetime. However with Hunger Games and Divergent sequels on the horizon my only fear is that this title will soon be forgotten.
7 / 10
