The Giver (2014)
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Critics Consensus: Phillip Noyce directs The Giver with visual grace, but the movie doesn't dig deep enough into the classic source material's thought-provoking ideas.
Critics Consensus: Phillip Noyce directs The Giver with visual grace, but the movie doesn't dig deep enough into the classic source material's thought-provoking ideas.
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Movie Info
The haunting story of THE GIVER centers on Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), a young man who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Yet as he begins to spend time with The Giver (Jeff Bridges), who is the sole keeper of all the community's memories, Jonas quickly begins to discover the dark and deadly truths of his community's secret past. With this newfound power of knowledge, he realizes that the stakes are higher than imagined - a matter of life and death for … More- Rating:
- PG-13
- Genre:
- Drama , Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Directed By:
- Phillip Noyce
- Written By:
- Vadim Perelman , Lois Lowry , Robert B. Weide , Michael Mitnick
- In Theaters:
- Aug 15, 2014 Wide
- On DVD:
- Nov 25, 2014
- US Box Office:
- $44.7M
Cast
-
Jeff Bridges
as The Giver -
Meryl Streep
as Chief Elder -
Brenton Thwaites
as Jonas -
Alexander Skarsgård
as Father -
Katie Holmes
as Mother -
Odeya Rush
as Fiona
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Critic Reviews for The Giver
All Critics (139) | Top Critics (33) | Fresh (49) | Rotten (90)
This might be an anti-pharmaceutical, anti-cult, anti-plot, anti-suspense allegory. It could also just be Thanksgiving at your robot-zombie in-laws.
For much of the movie, viewers will be asking themselves where the conflict is. And, by extension, the drama.
The Giver is more simple and raw than the rest of today's teen dystopias that try to cram in unnecessary backstory and love triangles.
As Jonas, Brenton Thwaites brings thoughtful wonder to the role of a young man who is thrilled and frightened by what he learns.
The magic gets lost in translation.
In the ranks of dystopian YA-targeted motion pictures, this one can stand alongside its peers.
Vaguely enjoyable but rather pedestrian-a quasi-Pleasantville.
Not surprisingly, the acting is first-rate, with the moments between Bridges' Giver and Thwaites' Receiver forming the heart of the movie.
Yet another young adult novel gets squashed into a bland, Saturday afternoon time-waster.
It's an intelligent, accomplished, unpadded thriller, and one suitable for the children.
It just looks like a low-rent mishmash of Divergentand The Hunger Games, recycling riffs from Logan's Run with sets and costumes lifted from Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey.
The Giver is a solid, soft sci-fi entertainment with plenty of talented folks attached.
The Giver has its moments, but generally fails to convince the viewer of the credibility of the world it inhabits.
Robert B Weide of Curb Your Enthusiasm fame co-wrote the screenplay but, sadly, none of the debunking wit of that series is found in this solemn, sappy fable.
Young adults impatient for the next instalment of The Hunger Games will find plenty to enjoy in this thriller based on the Lois Lowry novel.
Noyce has an innate and remarkable ability to capture landscape with sensitivity, giving depth to the teenage blockbuster and even allowing adult audiences the chance to evaluate their own individuality.
It makes for one of this overcrowded field's stronger entries, refusing to redact entirely the baby-slaying weirdness that permits Lois Lowry's source novel its multiplicity of grown-up readings ...
Perhaps too slow for audiences used to the cut and thrust of Katniss Everdeen, this nevertheless quietely makes its mark.
A very simplistic Dystopia for Dummies - with a bit of Terrence Malick for Dummies thrown in - and inoffensive enough until it devolves into all kinds of stupid.
A bold and astute coming-of-age story with an impressive leading turn by Brenton Thwaites.
While Thwaites has visual appeal, he struggles to give us the layered, conflicted hero this film needs. Without it, The Giver is little more than stylish but saccharine entertainment for teens.
It takes a while to get going, but as The Giver marches towards its ending, it begins to tie together the weightier themes it's exploring.
By adding spurious action and making the characters older than in the novel, the makers of The Giver sell-out the story; a project which prizes individuality shouldn't so slavishly adhere to the Divergent-school of teenage drama.
It's special because it focuses on the interior lives of its characters.
While I didn't mind the set-up, The Giver stumbles to the finish line by offering us a rushed, predictable finale.
The allegorical framework starts to look contrived, and things feel far too rushed and glib after an involving start.
Audience Reviews for The Giver
An interesting and unique concept that makes you wonder the benefits of promoting 'Sameness' butnthis movie just stalls halfway and never regains the audience!
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Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
'The Giver' is thought-provoking and carries several engaging sequences, most notably whenever Jeff Bridges 'gives' memories to the young star Brenton Thwaites, but that's most of all it has to offer in terms of engaging cinema...and most of that was probably just ripped from Youtube. The film is still worth the ticket though, simply because it forces the viewer to perhaps view life in a different perspective.
MoreSuper Reviewer
The Giver: Simply stated, although it's not really simple at all, my job is to transmit to you all the memories I have within me. Memories of the past.
The Giver is the story of a young hero living in a futuristic society where a governing system has seemingly made everything perfect and free of chaos, with ruminating thoughts on possible corruption lurking just beneath the surface. This seems like an interesting idea, were one not to realize how often it seems to come about. These past few years have already given us films like Divergent and The Hunger Games, and while The Giver is also a popular book now adapted into a feature film, it seems to have come at a time where we did not really need it. It is not because the book did not deserve the film treatment, but more due to how relatively slight it feels by comparison. Like it or not, a film like The Hunger Games succeeds for numerous reasons, such as its scope, the actors involved, and cultural relevance at the time. While The Giver has aspects that keep it from being a poor film, it unfortunately feels like it missed its opportunity to be a bigger deal.
read the whole review at thecodeiszeek.com
Super Reviewer
The Giver Quotes
- Jonas:
- If you can't feel, what's the point?
- The Giver:
- We are living a life of shadows, of echoes.
- The Giver:
- With love comes faith and hope.
- The Giver:
- You have the courage. Let me give you the strength.
- The Giver:
- A dwelling is not a home. A home is more.
- The Giver:
- Everything is connected. Everything is balance. Where there is good, there is bad.
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