“The Giver” Still a Cut Above Rivals

The Giver. A teen struggles with the responsibility of being chosen as the keeper of a now-peaceful society’s violent emotions and memories.

The Giver is set in the near future; we’ve screwed up our planet and a massive social shake-up has occurred. To maintain peace, each citizen is required to take daily meds and transfer their raw emotions to the Receiver of Memories. Teenager Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) is chosen to replace the outgoing Receiver (Jeff Bridges), who he calls the Giver, and shoulder the emotional burdens of the populace by retaining all of their memories.

One of the biggest and most welcome differences between this and other similarly themed movies is that the story is told in a concise dynamic manner that doesn’t become bogged down in needless spectacle or become subservient to a director’s grandstanding style. The core of the story remains the relationship between Jonas and the Giver. It keeps us emotionally anchored. The Giver reminded me of the importance of diversity despite its inherent complications; it engaged me on an intellectual level that prompted me to reflect on how precious life is. The film GAVE me something, hardly a common thing where today’s cinema is concerned. An adaptation of the Lois Lowry novel.