The Giver Review

Lois Lowry's book The Giver was one of my favorite books from elementary school. Its original plot of a dystopia with rules of sameness and theme of embracing what life has in store still has impact after years of reading it. The book must have impacted Jeff Bridges as well, because for many years he has wanted to make the book a movie with his father as The Giver. Unfortunately, many studios did not want to touch the book until now when YA novels are becoming a strong trend in Hollywood. They hired Phillip Noyce (Salt and Rabbit Proof Fence) to direct and the famous Weinstein Brothers (The King's Speech) to produce. I was happy for an adaptation until the first trailer came out where I was starting to get hesitant because it looked like it was trying to please fans of The Divergent Series and Hunger Games rather than pleasing fans of the book. I still had hope, and after watching the film I can happily say that fans of the book will be more than pleased with this adaptation, even though it does have a strong fatal flaw.

The performances in this film were surprisingly strong. Jeff Bridges was fantastic as The Giver, he embodied exactly how I envisioned The Giver in the book: a kind, protective, and peaceful old man who wants this community to see the truth. The real surprise in this film is Brenton Thwaites. He plays Jonas with strong naivety and you feel with his character's changes throughout the film perfectly. Thwaites has been in minor roles in many films this year, including a wasted performance in Maleficent, but his performance here proves his talent and he deserves bigger roles in the future. The rest of the cast does well too, even though some of them were heavily advertised but were not in the film very long. But regardless, everyone plays their parts well.

The visual effects are the strong point in this film. The film starts in black and white, since the community cannot see color. But as Jonas gains memories and starts to see color, the film blends black and white with these colors. The finished product looks stunning because of this effect and it goes to show Hollywood that you can make powerful visual effects with a low budget.

The fatal flaw I mentioned earlier is the film's third act. While the film's first two acts were strongly written and faithful to the book, the third act ends up being a cliché of other YA adaptations. The chase scenes have terrible shaky-cam, characters make really dumb choices, and the additional stuff that did not appear in the book had its moments, but ultimately were not necessary. If a stronger writer and director were attached, this third act would have been better executed.

Other than the messy third act, I still really enjoyed The Giver. Its performances, strong themes, and beautiful visuals make up for the third act. I really don't understand why critics gave this film a hard time and compared it to other YA adaptations. In my eyes, this film does what other YA adaptations like Twilight and Divergent don't: has a heart, brain, and social commentary that everyone can take away from in the end. If you're a fan of the book, don't listen to the critics and check it out, you won't be disappointed.

Rating: 8 out of 10