Movie Review: The Giver (2014)

After eighteen years of planning and small interfering disputes, we finally get a movie adaptation of Lois Lowry's The Giver. Now I remember reading this book when I was in middle school. We had to read it the coming year and I went ahead (this was at the very beginning of the school year, well before we read it) and read it and fell in love with it. The book was revolutionary because it raised ideas that people toss around a lot into society today. Is being different good? Are emotions such as pain okay to feel? Should we give into our emotional urges? Now when I heard that this was going to be made into a movie, I was thrilled. It was rumored that Jeff Bridges was going to work on the project. He's a good actor, doing everything from The Big Lebowski to the remake of the original True Grit. I was excited to see how the book would translate into the movie's sets, themes, and different characters. Then I finally saw the movie yesterday. To tell you the truth, I was not dissapointed at all. The movie is the same plot as that of the novel. Jonas (Brandon Thwaites) is a 15 year old who is chosen to be "receiver" to the keeper of memories, well- named The Giver (Jeff Bridges). As Jonas receives memories from The Giver, he learns how the society that he was born into isn't one of perfection, but one lacking certain normality and human emotion. First, let me comment on the acting. And I am going to make it pretty basic. Jeff Bridges is the only actor who I thought went "above and beyond" with the part. Everyone in this movie is functional. Jeff Bridges is always a great actor, and his acting in this movie is so well composed. You can tell he was a fan of the book, because that character literally translates itself to the page. Brandon Thwaites and the younger kid actors and actresses are all functional. Not saying their performances were outstanding, but they had a functionality to them. Meryl Streep was in this movie, and to be totally honest she didn't add anything great. She wasn't bad, but she did less than what I've expected from her to do. Katie Holmes is one of my favorite actreesses and she is functional, but she's really good at making the intensity of the character she's playing come through. Everything in the movie is very good, until the elements of the movie that weren't in the book. I will not give spoilers, but the two characters who turn on each other at the end, let's just say that didn't seem realistic. The Giver in the novel was also a much more reclusive figure. He didn't like to be seen in public, and he wasn't just like the guy over there. He had a mysterious way about him. That was the one element of the character that Jeff Bridges didn't quite hit with his own translation of The Giver. Overall, The Giver is an acceptable adaption of the hit best selling novel. Very good. Two stars.