X
- 2014
- PG-13
- The Weinstein Company
- 1 h 37 m
- 2014
- PG-13
- The Weinstein Company
- 1 h 37 m
Summary Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community.
Directed By: Phillip Noyce
Written By: Michael Mitnick, Robert B. Weide, Lois Lowry
- 2014
- PG-13
- The Weinstein Company
- 1 h 37 m
- 2014
- PG-13
- The Weinstein Company
- 1 h 37 m
The Giver
47
6.2
Where to Watch
Summary Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community.
Directed By: Phillip Noyce
Written By: Michael Mitnick, Robert B. Weide, Lois Lowry
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or average
Based on 33 Critic Reviews
47
24% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
61% Mixed
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
15% Negative
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or average
Based on 33 Critic Reviews
47
24% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
61% Mixed
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
15% Negative
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
The strength of the cast speaks volumes about the "prestige" aspect of the production. In addition to Bridges, Meryl Streep, Katie Holmes, and Alexander Skarsgard contribute.
In spite of grand, world-building special effects and a stellar cast, the film falters under giant leaps of faith that land it just outside of the typical audience's threshold of suspension of disbelief.
User Score
Generally favorable
Based on 243 User Ratings
6.2
49% Positive
120 Ratings
120 Ratings
34% Mixed
82 Ratings
82 Ratings
17% Negative
41 Ratings
41 Ratings
User Score
Generally favorable
Based on 243 User Ratings
6.2
49% Positive
120 Ratings
120 Ratings
34% Mixed
82 Ratings
82 Ratings
17% Negative
41 Ratings
41 Ratings
It was the Nebula award winning novel that took the science fiction world by storm. Almost immediately after it's release, talk of turning The Giver into a feature film began, but turning a complex science fiction story into something general audiences could enjoy was a big issue. Studio, cast delays, and re-writes held the film up for more than a decade, but in 2014 it was released and it is spectacular! In the not so distant future, on top of a mountain, lays a futurist society in which pain, war, and disease has been eliminated at a huge cost. With all that society has gained, it has lost the ability to exercise individuality and free thought, this effects everyone except for one, The Giver. The Giver is the historian, who keeps the memory of what life used to be like, so that society never forgets that what it's gained far outweighs the cost. The Giver however is old and must train a replacement. At the choosing ceremony, a young teenager named Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) is chosen. Once Jonas learns the truth, he must decide to do the job of The Giver or reveal the truth, in the hopes of bringing back individuality, but at what cost? Originally producers wanted Lloyd Bridges to play the Giver, when he passed, his son took on the role, and while he doesn't fit the mold of an elder statesman, he was still amazing. Meryl Streep also partakes in this magical film, playing the settlements leader, and she is every bit as chilling and suspenseful as the character in the book. At this point, I'm really convinced that there isn't a role she can't play successfully. Even with all the star power, far an away the best performance in this film is given by Brenton Thwaites, a British actor I'd never seen before. Aside from his tremendous good looks, Thwaites portrayal of a teenager with the fate of the world on his shoulders is better than even that of Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games. The passion and charisma he portrays was absolutely infectious and helped carry the film through even the slowest parts. The Bottom Line, the book is a Sci-Fi lovers dream, while the movie is a lot different in order to attract a more mainstream audience, the power and genius of the story remains, and for that The Giver joins our list of must see movies!
Report
Blew me away. Was an excellent movie to watch with my wife and daughter. One of those bonding movies that reminds you to take the bad with the good, and to use both to learn and love more. I am grateful to the directors for compressing these complex ideas into such a concise and well crafted narrative.
Report
The Giver has taken a slow route to the screen, passed by newer, sleecker dystopian novels for young adults. "The Hunger Games" and "Divergent" owe much to Lowry's worldview and style while lacking her depth. What they have is strong female leads and plenty of action, elements absent in the spare parable of The Giver.
21 years later, in the wake of "The Hunger Games", "Divergent" and "The Lego Movie," another movie about a kid rebelling against socially imposed “sameness” is a case of the same old, same old.
The initial setup for the story is engaging enough, but Noyce and cinematographer Ross Emery have shot the whole thing in generic digital fake black-and-white, so it looks like a late-‘90s TV commercial for a soon-to-be-recalled compact car.
The Giver was ahead of its time as a book. But as a movie, it’s too late.
Mostly the problem is that every aspect of The Giver feels both painfully familiar and like an awkward, unsupportable stretch. For a film about the deep, hidden dangers of enforced sameness, that’s almost hilariously ironic.
My advice? Do not listen to anyone that doesn't like this movie. They probably think The Hunger games is the most brilliant movie series of all time. This film is absolutely brilliant, and takes you on a thrill ride. It's visually beautiful, and really let's you feel the emotions Brenton Thwaites character experiences the more he learns about the past world.
Report
Sure, it's based on a YA novel, but then again, so are "Hunger Games" and Harry Potter." This does not hold a candle to those, and not even to the slightly lesser tier of film adaptations of YA novels like the "Divirgent" series. More potential here perhaps than was realized, even with some A-list actors.
Report
I think the huge disparity in reception this film has earned from critics and audience may come down to a confusion just about the audience which, it seems to be, the film must be for.
The film seems to be marketed broadly as a typical mid-teen to adult sci-fi film, which perhaps some children younger than 14 may enjoy also.
Unfortunately, I also presumed this is what the film was all about, and had forgotten about the 1990s childrens' book which the film is an adaptation of.
Now, I know better. While the book seems to have been aimed at, roughly, 9 to 14 year olds (so still below the mid-teen + typical sci-fi range), this film clearly, clearly, to me is a film for a completely different audience. Yes, perhaps some 9 to 12 year olds will enjoy it.
However, everything about this very, very simple film says 5 to 9 year olds to me.
I can't give this film more than 6 out of 10 (2 out of 10 for adults, 8 out of 10 for 5-8 year olds), because the studio and promoters seem to have refrained totally from targeting this young children's film as a young children's film in the way they not only ought to have, but really need to have done. In a sense, it's quite a funny phenomenon seeing hoards of adults being surprised and appalled by such a simple, clichéd movie, but this could all have been avoided, and kids could be able to enjoy what really is for them much more easily. I think it's all got to do with money and more people watching the film. (While if I were to be even more cynical and also 2010s-topical, it could be suggested this is exactly how the Illuminati in the theories would act - mis-categorising even a film about such social control for issues to prevent society from working smoothly.)
For that young audience, I think this should come across as a rather good film, and I'd recommend it as one of the simplest treatments of certain, important social issues which a child should, for sure, become familiar with. However, even children within that age group should need a discussion not long afterwards about that things in real life are, just about always, more complex than this film can suggest, and it is a particular type of over-simplification in order to treat the issues it does.
For anyone older, this may not be for you.
For adults, just forget it completely, you'd find it utterly patronising and the worst kind of cliché and a terrible waste of time, unless you particularly appreciate really, really simple films for the under 9s.
Report
It seems Hollywood has this factory in which it manufactures a variety of products. From bad by-committee scripts, unholy editing mishmashes at the behest of studios when a director gets too auteur for their liking, and of course their most rewarding product line: bland 20-something actors for young adult movies. Brenton Thwaites and Odeya Rush have to be the most bland of them all with both entirely lacking any semblance of acting ability, yet they look young and the teen target audience will find them mildly attractive. Thwaites is so bland, in fact, that I did not remember I saw him in Gods of Egypt where he was practically the lead. Now that is bland. He is a cardboard cut out of a young adult actor and Rush is hardly much better. The Giver also has a rare bad performance from Meryl Streep alongside a good one from Jeff Bridges, who constantly seems shocked by how bad the movie around him is turning out to be. You can practically see Bridges trying to remember how big the paycheck was for this one and trying to ascertain whether it was worth it or not in the end.
Surrounding these unfortunate actors is the plot of The Giver, which is actually quite compelling when considering just the premise. Set in a world where all emotion, feeling, memory, and color has been erased, the world is divided into communities watched over the elders, namely Chief Elder (Streep). At various stages of life, there are ceremonies. When one is given to their family, when they are nine years old, when they graduate from school and are given their job, and when they are released to elsewhere. At the graduation ceremony, Jonas (Thwaites) is skipped over and called last, as he is to become the new Receiver of Memory. He is the only one allowed to feel, have emotions, and learn about the past and what the world used to be and he must learn from The Giver (Jeff Bridges), who is the current receiver of memory. Yet, armed with his knowledge about how they "release" aka kill the elderly and babies, as well as his love of Fiona (Rush), Jonas wants to save the world and give everybody what the Elders had taken away many years ago.
Yet, how the film approaches this is quite heavy-handed. Acting all knowing, the film shows how with hate and war, which are bad and why feeling was stamped out, also comes love. And love is worth everything. While this may be true to some degree, it simply sounds preachy and then the film further digs its grave by including obnoxious montages where it celebrates life and shows the beauty of the world. It practically plays like an advertisement for life where the film constantly preaches about the power of love and how it outweighs hate in the world. Again, maybe true, but The Giver always comes off as pretending to know everything about the world and having to teach the viewer about what it all means. While it has a compelling premise, it panders too heavily to the young adult audience in this regard with an over-the-top demonstration of love and how it can solve all things. It is too naive and romanticized to really work and not come off as pandering, ham-fisted, and coming from a place of great superiority.
This same appeal to young adults is found in the "transformational" and "eye opening" romance between two bland leads that lack chemistry or any character development whatsoever. Instead, they are just young adult romantic stock characters that have this unspoken passion for one another even when neither are actually able to feel anything. They lack any definition and instead are written to have the other complete their worlds. In many respects, they are Manic Pixie Dream Boy/Girl's for one another and act entirely selflessly to advance the other, but ironically, when two Manic Pixie Dream Boy/Girl's meet, nobody advances. These are thinly written characters to the point that they are practically invisible. Every action is for plot convenience and the acting hardly breathes life into these stock characters found in The Giver.
For a film with such a compelling premise, it winds up being largely quite tame. With bad characters, a bad romance, bad acting, and a heavy handed and naive take on life and love, The Giver winds up piling up weaknesses that sinks its ship. Yet, these are mostly quite passive. None of these bad elements are absolutely abhorrent and the film never winds up battling between being bad and dreadful. Instead, it just toes the line and is entirely passively bad, going down with nary a whimper. It is a film that is content to appeal to its target demographic, present hollow and naive ideas that appear thoughtful and appeal to the minds of teenagers, and then toss out some bland young actors that also appeal to that demographic. It is a film that is defined by just how below average it is and how safe it plays everything. It is this paleness that relegates The Giver to being so average and safe that it is bad.
Report
the three is for the **** movies random images for the most part get a huge annoying **** hurt to watch the slide scene **** jump scene barely made **** was asher never punished.? was **** im saying is the girls were overly attractive or whatever that is....sexual...things going **** palm trees were not what i was picturing at **** the cabin was **** never looked in **** never tranferred **** avoid detection....lousy
Report
Production Company
Tonik Productions,
Asis Productions,
Canada Film Capital,
Department of Trade and Industry of South Africa,
The Weinstein Company,
Walden Media
Release Date Aug 15, 2014
Duration 1 h 37 m
Rating PG-13
Tagline You can make things better.
Website
http://thegiverfilm.com/
Awards
Golden Trailer Awards
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Hollywood Music In Media Awards (HMMA)
• 2 Nominations
Heartland Film
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
