Taking 20 years to arrive on the big screen and based on Lois Lowry’s book, The Giver finally meanders into cinema screens. For years now, “...
Taking 20 years to arrive on the big screen and based on Lois Lowry’s book, The Giver finally meanders into cinema screens. For years now, “Young Adult” books have made for quite successful movie franchises, from Vampires to Wizards, they’ve had a good run. And now The Giver, complete with baby killing will surely bring the genre to a grinding halt. While the book itself forms part of a loose quarter with three other books (Gathering Blue, Messenger and Son) it’s unlikely that this movie franchise will continue.
Set in a perfect community, with no crime, pain, war or suffering the story follows Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), a young man who has been chosen as the community’s Receiver of Memories. He enters into a training program with a elderly man, called The Giver (Jeff Bridges). Over time, Jonas learns about all the things he though never exists and finds plenty of unhappy truths about what he perceives as the real world.
The idea for The Giver is an interesting one and it’s presented in an equally interesting way. Much of the movie is in black and white, echoing perfectly the black and white existence that exists in the community. The memories that Jonas is given are in full blown Technicolor. it’s a nice touch and certainly evolves as the movie plods along. And The Giver certainly does plod. The pacing is woefully slow here and things take an eon to progress. Characters seem to linger on screen far too long and even the camera movement is quite lethargic in places. And that’s even before the slowness of the story hits you.
The cast are the saving grace here especially with a virtually unrecognisable Jeff Bridges. While none of the cast, Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep included, break much of a sweat (if at all) they are engaging and watchable. While much of the movie hangs on the shoulders of Brenton Thwaites, he doesn’t really succumb to the pressure and certainly is a star in the making.The supporting cast however, are rather underdeveloped and serve as stereotypical eye candy.
While movies based on “Young Adult” books have been hugely successful and with ten million copies of The Giver sold in the last 20 years, this really is only for the fans of the book. If you’re not a fan, then you’ll find this an incredibly tough watch. It’s not really accessible and besides the elephant killing, it’s the baby getting “put down” by syringe that some audiences may find incredibly tough to watch. And while it’s a reflection on the “perfect” emotionless society and is handled well on screen, it still may cause many to put down their popcorn and make for the exit.
Baby killing aside, the movie itself struggles to find it’s feet and while it’s interesting in places, it makes for a bland and boring 2 hours.
