Dominic Piacentini
Odds are at some point in your education you were assigned to read Lois Lowry’s The Giver. Whether you actually read the book or not, the classic young adult novel is a staple in American public education. A film adaptation of The Giver premiered on Aug. 25 to mediocre reviews. Some critics argue that this movie is just as unlikely to interest kids as the novel. Another sentiment, which I feel is particularly unjustified, argues that the film falls into the same, hackneyed storytelling we have come to expect from many of today’s young adult dystopian stories.
We are in an age of literature when young adult, coming-of-age and dystopian novels are overabundant, and their sequels, spin-offs and adaptations are just as prevalent. In a world with Maze Runner, The Hunger Games and Divergent, The Giver reminds us that stories haven’t always been told the same way. The conflict in the The Giver doesn’t revolve around the corrupt suppression of working class teenagers; instead, the film tells a story of the corrupt repression of difference. People are equal only because everything that makes us different has been buried by medications. Jonas isn’t fighting against the large government and military powers of antagonists like President Snow or Jeanine Matthews. He fights against his own idea of self and a superficial memory that pervades his community.
I first read The Giver as an assignment in a sixth grade classroom. The differences between our world and Jonas’s world initially seemed negligible. He was a normal boy in an average neighborhood, attending a mundane school. It was only when Jonas first met the Giver that I began to understand how a world so similar to our own could also be so different. This is what makes both the book and the film so impressively believable. Jonas’s community defines itself according to our own reality.
I went to see The Giver with my teacher, and now good friend, who first assigned me The Giver. After having a dinner with wine and discussing books and movies we recently read and watched, we headed into the theater. I am a big talker during movies, and it turned out she is too.
During the film we exchanged approving comments toward the aspects of the book that survived into the adaptation.
Other aspects of the film were somewhat wanting. Jeff Bridges’s performance as the Giver was underwhelming, and his relationship with Jonas could have been explored more in the surprisingly short 94-minute film. After the movie concluded we sat and discussed our thoughts in the theater through the credits. We came to the same conclusion. The movie was good. But by no means was it perfect.
The Giver is a refreshing and enjoyable movie that has a considerable amount of heart at its core. Brenton Thwaites does an excellent job portraying the aged-up Jonas, and Taylor Swift does an impressively adequate job in her scenes as Rosemary. Katie Holmes is an odd casting choice as Jonas’s mother, and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. Still, it is evident that Jeff Bridges, who also directed the film, holds Lowry’s novel in high esteem as this very different story stays its course against the more contemporary trend.