'The Giver' is unduly do-goody and drab
'The Giver' stars Jeff Bridges as the title character, who is the sole person who remembers the history of humankind, and Brenton Thwaites as his student.
'The Giver' stars Jeff Bridges as the title character, who is the sole person who remembers the history of humankind, and Brenton Thwaites as his student.
The latest entrant in the YA franchise film sweepstakes, 鈥淭he Giver鈥澛爄s based on Lois Lowry鈥檚 1993 Newbery Medal-winning novel and is聽a longtime pet project of its costar, Jeff Bridges. The trouble with pet聽projects is that too often they are unduly do-goody, and so it is here.
The聽story is set in a futuristic faux utopia in which聽people live out their lives in an聽enforced sameness devoid of true feeling聽starting from the cradle聽and abetted by passion-sapping drugs. For their own peace of mind,聽supposedly, they retain no knowledge of their own history. Only The聽Giver (Bridges) is entrusted with mankind鈥檚 back story, just in case the聽Chief Elder (Meryl Streep) needs some extracurricular counsel.聽
Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) has been chosen to be the inheritor of the聽Giver鈥檚 lore and, in various mind-meld scenes resembling a mash-up聽of CNN Headline News and 鈥淜oyaanisqatsi,鈥� the jumble of history and聽personal memory flash periodically before our eyes. It鈥檚 not long聽before Jonas realizes that a life without true feeling is pretty drab. (The聽film begins in black-and-white before shifting incrementally to color.)
It鈥檚 pretty drab anyway. The movie never really sheds its chilly聽Orwellian vibe, and its chief idea 鈥� that only The Giver and Jonas can聽truly feel 鈥� is contradicted by the supposedly blanked-out citizens who, in聽fact, appear to have feelings indeed, albeit nasty ones.聽
Philip Noyce, who has directed some marvelous movies (鈥淭he Quiet聽American,鈥� 鈥淩abbit-Proof Fence鈥�) does his best to give this hoo-ha some聽snap, but he鈥檚 mired in the film鈥檚 pretensions. It doesn鈥檛 help that Bridges,聽doing an old-codger routine, seems to be playing his role with cotton-filled聽cheeks or that Streep, with her long braided locks, looks like a dyspeptic聽shepherdess. And what can you do with the scene in which Taylor Swift,聽in a mood-memory flashback, introduces Jonas to music? If they were聽going back in time, couldn鈥檛 they at least have come up with, say, Chopin,聽or Jimi Hendrix? Grade:聽C+ (Rated PG-13 for a mature thematic image and some sci-fi action/violence.)