The Giver
Director: Phillip Noyce
Writer: Michael Mitnick, Robert B. Weide
Based on: Lois Lowry’s novel
Cast: Brenton Thwaites, Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Alexander Skarsgard, Katie Holmes, Odeya Rush, Cameron Monaghan, Taylor Swift, Emma Tremblay

Plot:
Jonas’ (Brenton Thwaites) final year-ceremony is approaching – which is especially exciting because all kids get their community assignment at that point. That means that they’ll finally find out what their role and duty will be in their community. Contrary to many other kids, Jonas has no idea what he is suited for. But he certainly did not expect to be announced as the new Receiver of Memories – he doesn’t even know what it is the Receiver (Jeff Bridges) does. When he starts his apprenticeship, the role of the receiver is far from the only thing he learns though.

I generally liked the book but wasn’t particularly blown away by it. The same pretty much goes for the film. Some things were nicely done, others I didn’t care much for – especially where the film deviates from the book.

[SPOILERS]

In the book it takes a while to realize that everybody sees the world in black and white – and that only Jonas gets flashes of color from time to time – until he starts to be the Receiver of Memory. The film makers decided to keep that metaphor by having the film start out in black and white and gradually filling it with color. Why that takes the element of surprise, I thought it was a good choice.

Less good choices were that they forced a romance plot into the film where there was distinctly none in the book. Jonas has a whole goddamn lot of stuff to deal with, his newly discovered feelings of love are all concentrated on Gabriel, the baby his family takes care of and that has the same abilities as him. There is no room for a girl there – but the movie stuffs one in anyway. And usually I would be all for more women in films, but couldn’t they have found a different role than love interest?

The other thing that just didn’t make sense and didn’t fit the rest of the world was the Chief Elder’s (Meryl Streep) apparent knowledge of the past. The whole point of the Receiver of Memory is that they are the only ones who have that freaking knowledge. So that was weird.

But other than that I enjoyed the film. It was sweet, well-paced and entertaining. The cast is great and it was clearly made for young adults, not – like many other films – a film for adults starring teens. It doesn’t hurt when teen films are more adult, but every once in a while it is nice for kids to get a film that is so clearly aimed at them without being condescending. At least that what the teenager inside of me thought.

Summarizing: It’s sweet. I liked it, but I didn’t love it.