The Giver Review (2014)

The Giver

  My overall, consensus of the giver is that it is a really good story that game out at the wrong time.

  Jeff Bridges owned the rights for the film for 19 years in hopes of his father playing the giver. When his father died, he decided to play him. For audiences who don't know much about the source material and how old it is, they may feel that The Giver is unoriginal. I mean, how many more movies about a oppressive government and a chosen teen do we need? Well considering the book came out in 1993, it is technically one of the original dystopians and a lot of books are actually copying this one. Unfortunately, it is coming out at a time where that genre is trending and so it feels as if we've seen everything it presents before. Most likely we have.

  What I like about this film, is that it really has a strong message about why we should feel and why we should feel strongly. Living in shadows, without extreme pain and extreme joy are like living in a world that's black and white. 

  For half of the movie, the movie is like an old 50s film, then gradually it's starts to fade to color the more Jonah sees. This was a really unique choice in cinematography and I think it really worked. 

  Brenton Thwaites, does excellent as our lead and reminds me a bit of Andrew Garfield. Meryl Steep and Jeff Bridges also do great jobs!

  While they took some artistic liberty with the ending of the book to make it more dramatic, most of it was pretty similar. It was hardly perfect, but it was really beautiful. 3.5 out of 5 stars. (Worth Ticket Price)