The Giver

The Giver

 (2014)

A Review by Grant Kanigan

Directed by: Phillip Noyce

Written by: Michael Mitnick & Robert B. Weide, 

                  adapted from Lois Lowry's novel

Starring: Brenton Thwaites, Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep,

         Alexander Skarsgård, Katie Holmes, Taylor Swift

Rating: PG
Release Date: August 15th 2014

Jeff Bridges and Brenton Thwaites in The Giver
© 2014 - The Weinstein Company

     Too often in Hollywood, ambitious ideas are anchored down by a multitude of factors; a minuscule budget, actors who are difficult to work with, creative differences or inexperienced technical workers behind the camera. Films like Southland Tales, the Postman, and even The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus were all ambitious ideas that could have been ground-breaking classics, but were thrown off track by the perils of collaboration. While it does have more positive factors than negative ones, the Giver suffers the same shortcomings.
      Based on Lois Lowry's 1993 novel of the same name, the Giver is set in a futuristic society, one that doesn't seem too far off from our own. Seemingly utopian, it's residents all see the same colours, (black and white), feel the same emotions, (none), and blindly follow their leader. While it may seem utopian from it's own worldview, the world inhabited by those in the Giver is anything but. The peace and order is only maintained through a fascist dictatorship. Lowry, who won the Newbery Prize* for literature in 1990 for her World War Two novel Number the Stars, revisits the same themes in the Giver; Holocaust allegories and allusions are rampant throughout. While the story arc differs greatly from her novel, it does retain the most important elements, and all of the important themes of personal responsibility and the value of questioning leadership are still prevalent.
     Following our protagonist Jonas, as he graduates from childhood duties, we see him assigned to be the society's new 'Giver.' Rare in his small, island like society, Jonas' task is met with suprise. The last citizen to be chosen as a Giver, (Taylor Swift, in a small role during flashbacks), was mysteriously 'moved on' from society. Meeting with the Giver, (played wondrously by Jeff Bridges), Jonas soon learns that all is not what it seems, that without emotion, love and loss, humanity is missing out on the best parts of life, and being taken advantage of in the process. Slowly realizing he must confront the dystopic nature of his society, Jonas plots with the Giver to find a way to change the face of his world.
     Overall, there is ample source material and a plethora of philosophical discussions that could fill the film, and there's enough action to win over mainstream audiences. On top of that, an all star cast featuring Jeff Bridges in his best role since The Big Lebowski, Meryl Streep, Katie Holmes, and Alexander Skarsgård fill out their supporting roles magnificently. Thwaites, in the lead role, perfectly plays the fine line between wonder and terror. The cast, source material and the questions the film raises are enough to warrant a recommendation. Still, one can see that the Giver could have been so much more.
      Taking it's cues from Aldous Huxley's magnum opus Brave New World, the Giver is daring in it's questioning of authority. Is a perfect society really worth it if genetically inferior babies are literally thrown in the garbage? Can love exist without hate and vice versa? Noyce's film is truly challenging. Yet, it could have, and should have gone further.
     By pushing the envelope in regards to showing perils of a "perfect" society, Noyce could have pushed the WWII allegories to the breaking point. A failure to do this this was likely the studio trying to cast as big a net as possible, but a more refined vision would have helped a great deal. As well, the film raises a plethora of questions and then falls limp right at the climax. 90 minutes is far too short to raise questions against authority, the perils of perfection, brainwashing, parallels to the holocaust and parallels to a modern day globalized world. The novel The Giver, and this cast, deserved more time to flesh out their vision.
     The vision, too, is occasionally awful. The CGI in the film ranges from partially believable to laughably bad CGI that would fit right in in a 1980's music video. This cheapness also stretches to the casting; Streep has a smaller than usual role, and Swift barely has 60 seconds of screen time. The film feels incomplete, as if they ran out of money and still had 50 pages of the script to shoot. Still, under the direction of Philip Noyce, (Rabbit Proof Fence, Dead Calm, Patriot Games), a stellar cast, daring subject matter, and a fantastic story to work from, the Giver is worth checking out. It may be incomplete and ambiguous, but at least it's ambitious, and intellectually challenging. I'd choose that over the latest Transformers film any day.

Grant's Rating: 3/5 Stars

Jeff Bridges & Brenton Thwaites in The Giver: "Sameness"

*"The John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The award is given to the author of "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children." Past nominees include E.B. White, Louis Sachar and Gary Paulsen.