"The Giver" - A Review

I apologize for not posting a review in a while. Life has been really crazy this past month. However, I recently had to watch a movie for school, and so I thought I would write a review for it. The movie was the 2014 adaptation of Lois Lowry's novel The Giver. This movie takes place in a futuristic society in which everyone lives together in perfect harmony. The Elders have accomplished this through various means: drugging the people so that their emotions are suppressed, assigning each person to the occupation that will best fit their strengths and weaknesses, and releasing those who will be a burden to the community to a place called Elsewhere.

Another factor that plays a role in this harmony is the loss of memory. More specifically, memory of history. No one remembers the evils of the past. Such memories could cause the continuation of those evils. No one remembers the good of the past. This would cause jealousy and other negative feelings between members of the community. There is only one who remembers all: the Receiver of Memory (Jeff Bridges). The Receiver retains these memories so that when the Elders come across a situation which they do not have the experience to deal with, the Receiver can call upon his memories of the past to provide guidance.

However, it is time for the current Receiver to train a new Receiver. After careful examination, the Elders determine that a young man named Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) is the best person to become the new Receiver. As Jonas begins his training, he learns the hidden truths of the community in which he lives. He discovers the real purpose of the drugs that suppress emotions (everyone is led to believe that these drugs are vital health drugs). He discovers that people's right to chose is being restricted by the rules set up by the Elders. The real turning point comes when he finds out what is really happening when someone is released to Elsewhere: the person is being killed and their body disposed of outside the community. The worst part is that not even the people performing the act of killing know what is truly going on. Jonas must do something about this. He must return the memory of history to the general public. But in order to do that, he's going to have to break a few rules.

Given the large number of movies that have been coming out lately of this nature (such as The Hunger Games series and The Divergent series), this stand-alone film seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle. This is very unfortunate because this is a very interesting film - both ideologically and cinematically. The film wrestles with some interesting questions about free will and government control. In the world of The Giver, no one is free to make their own choices. The government makes those decisions for them. This is done in the interest of the larger good. As the Chief Elder (Meryl Streep) says, "When people have the freedom to chose, they chose wrong."

In this respect, the film deals with the very basic issue of human nature. The Elders recognize the fallen nature of man, and in a well-meaning effort to save humanity from itself, they have eliminated free will almost entirely just so that no one will ever follow their sinful desires. Once Jonas realizes this, he determines that this solution is not the right answer. From the Christian perspective, Jonas is right. The only solution to man's depravity that works is the freedom from sin that is found in Jesus Christ. While the film never reaches this conclusion, Christian viewers can use this film to segue into a conversation about how we can truly be set free from our total depravity.

Cinematically, this film is very well done. The production design is breathtaking. One of the coolest scenes of the movie is a scene that takes place on a bridge that is a perfect semi-circle. Of course, the production design is only as good as the cinematography that shows it off. And in The Giver, the cinematography delivers. Not only is the film beautifully shot, but the way the filmmakers chose to use black and white in the film and the way it interacts with actual color in some scenes is really cool. It's one of those things that can't be explained, it has to be seen. Trust me, it's pretty cool.

Another plus for this film is that unlike other films in its genre, The Giver is a clean movie. There is no foul language, there is no sexual content, and what little violence there is is really tame (it's pretty much limited to a character getting punched in the face and another character almost dying from falling down a great height). The movie gets its PG-13 rating from the suspense of the third act and the themes of the movie (particularly the "being released to Elsewhere" storyline). Because of these two elements, parents probably shouldn't allow really sensitive children to see this film. However, for the rest of the family, this is a fascinating, well-made, and family-friendly alternative to popular films like The Hunger Games.