‘The Giver’
Grade: C-
Adapting books into movies is a touchy and difficult process that either works brilliantly or horribly.
Sometimes you get 1962’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” where you can practically read the book along with the film and stay on track. And sometimes you get “Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief” where it seems like the producers read half of the back cover and then threw away every copy within a 2,000-mile radius thinking amazing effects could make up for the complete desertion of accuracy.
“The Giver” was given the same treatment as “Percy Jackson.”
“The Giver” is about a society kept isolated from the real world. In the Community, as it’s called, people have no understanding of emotions, pain, color or music. They do not remember the world before the Community was created. They don’t know of war, death, sex or snow.
All except for one person. The Receiver of Memory is the one person in the Community who retains memories of the real world in order to advise the Elders.
Jonas, played by Brenton Thwaites, is a graduate selected as the Receiver of Memory and begins working with the man who becomes known as the Giver, portrayed by Jeff Bridges.
As Jonas learns of the beauty and pain of the real world, he begins to disagree with the ways of the Community and sets out to free them.
As a book-to-movie adaptation, the film is a disaster.
In the book, Jonas is 12. In the film, Jonas is about 17 years old. Jonas is supposed to have pale eyes, but in the movie almost everyone but Jonas has pale eyes.
The biggest inaccuracy is the ending. In the book, Jonas plots his escape with the Giver, but in the movie, it’s spontaneous and met with unnecessary complications.
As a film, separate from the novel, it’s still a mess. Jonas’ progress in receiving memories is sped up and softened through a cheap montage. There isn’t enough time for the tension and stress of becoming the Receiver of Memory to build.
You’re gently tapped with conflict close to the end. Then it’s strung out to the point that you don’t care anymore, and you’re just waiting for someone to die so you can leave.
The production of the film is its only saving grace. The first quarter of the movie is shot in black and white to represent the Community’s vision and gradually gains color as Jonas gains more memories.
They paid painfully close attention to visual detail. Every shot was well thought-out and executed, and for that I applaud director Phillip Noyce.
However, Noyce left much to be desired in the field of storytelling and the concept of “The Giver” is simply too much for 97 minutes on the big screen.
It’s better off left between the pages.
By Lexia Banks
