I feel bad for The Giver. Being released in the immediate success of movies like The Hunger Games or Divergent reeks of a cash grab. However, when you learn about The Giver’s backstory, you realize how invested Jeff Bridges was in brining the movie to life. The Giver very successfully offers compelling thoughts on living in a dystopian society without resorting to a giant war. It also pulls of using Taylor Swift very successfully, a giant victory in and of itself.
Over voiceover, the movie explains why The Giver starts in black and white: years of wars and revolution caused the population to quarantine itself in a self-sufficient society without feelings or choices. Jonas (Brendon Thwaites) and his two best friends Fiona (Odeya Rush) and Asher (Cameron Monaghan) are at the age where they get placed in their assigned role for the rest of their lives. At the placing ceremony, Fiona and Asher get expected assignments, but Jonas gets a weird one: he is assigned to obtain the memory of the society’s past from the Giver (Jeff Bridges). The Giver instructs Jonas about feelings, both good and bad, as Jonas uncovers the truth about his society. Jonas draws curiosity from his “family unit” mother (Katie Holmes) and father (Alexander Skarsgard) as well as the Chief Elder (Meryl Streep), who is wary of Jonas and the Giver’s intentions.
Remember your first kiss? The first time you remember playing in the snow? First time a relative passed away? The emotional highs and lows in these moments push your feelings to the extreme. The Giver’s advantage is that its protagonist hasn’t experienced any of this at age 18. So watching it thrust upon him is like watching you relive a distant memory. The pure simplicity of what Jonas experiences touches something in every person’s past that we look at through rose-colored lenses. Jonas’s emotional journey is played out in Ross Emery’s (the cinematographer) use of color. Not since Pleasantville (which many critics have pointed out) has color been so effectively used in a movie. The Giver teases out colors in the black and white universe early, but only in quick glimpses. When Jonas starts getting memories, the images POP onscreen from the jarring shift from gray to blue, red, green, etc. The color scheme evolves with Jonas very subtly; after the first memories, the Giver transitions to desaturated greens, blues, etc, leaving some gray visible in the color palette. By the third act, Jonas and the audience are both seeing texture and shading of colors with no gray to be found anywhere. The color use, probably for budgetary constraints by Director Philip Noyce, simply conveys how Jonas is feeling to the audience without coming out directly with stupid quotes like “LOOK HOW RED THIS APPLE IS!!”
The Giver also captures that Orwellian air of unrest similar YA dystopian films have forgotten. The black and white jars audiences immediately, taking the power of a park or a waterfall away. There are no families, only family units (basically, caretakers). Language doesn’t quite fit normal speak, with every character being truthful and overly descriptive to contextualize their thoughts. The Chief Elder will always ask for forgiveness and be forgiven in chilling unison by the entire town. When the Giver enters the picture and gives Jonas memories, Jonas starts using words like love, upon which his “mother” would snap back “Use proper language!” Color again works here too, as Jonas and Fiona awaken with knowledge, Asher buys in to the system, turning more and more pale as the third act approaches. The Giver also takes a massive risk with some truly disturbing scenes right before the climax, showcasing what Jonas’s father does for a job. The movie comes apart at the seams in the third act, saved mostly by the conflict between The Giver and the Chief Elder, but those first two acts rival some of the great dystopian young adult fare out today.
Brendon Thwaites has had a stellar 2014, releasing many movies including the underrated Oculus. As Jonas, Thwaites sells the audience on his likability early, and brings the joy and pain necessary to a kid learning about these feelings for the first time. Jeff Bridges plays the Giver like an aging Lebowski, with some blunt trauma thrown in. Meryl Streep is chilling as the Chief Elder while making the audience see her side of the argument, a feat only a select few like Streep could pull off. Odeya Rush, a newcomer, is adorable and expressive as Jonas’s love interest. Cameron Monaghan, Alexander Skarsgard, and Taylor Swift are fine in small doses. The big surprise though is Katie Holmes, using her personality in the media to channel cold logic into her mother character who is a believe in the community. However, Holmes brings enough to the table to make us believe she “feels” something for Jonas without ever knowing she has those feelings.
Book writer Lois Lowry should feel very happy about how The Giver has been adapted. Warts and all, the movie captures the message the book was trying to convey in a very simple powerful way. It also pulls off a sled reference without tarnishing Citizen Kane’s reputation.