Anyone familiar with Lois Lowry’s beloved children’s novel The Giver knows that one of its key tenets is precise language. So I’m going to phrase the next sentence as precisely as possible: This movie adaption does not live up to the book. In fact, this movie adaptation is so bland that it makes the chief inspiration for such young adult sci-fi dystopias as The Hunger Games and Divergent seem like a shoddy knockoff.
Part of the film’s problem may be timing. Jeff Bridges, who both stars as the eponymous Giver and is credited as a producer, began trying to adapt Lowry’s subtle, smart indictment of totalitarian societies (including, arguably, our own) almost as soon as it was published in 1993. But back then, everyone from possible financiers to Lowry herself resisted. In the intervening years, it influenced an entire industry of young adult books and subsequent movie franchises, which in turn boasted massive followings, Hollywood budgets, and, yes, talent – not to mention bad-ass female heroines, which The Giver itself sorely lacks. By the time Bridges finally managed to get this film project together, the ground beneath it had shifted seismically. And perhaps its foundation just wasn’t strong enough to withstand such changes. Continue Reading →
