Review of The Giver (2014) by Foxgrove — 26 Sep 2014

The problem with 'The Giver' is that despite a concept of enticing possibilities, it just never gets going to make one sufficiently interested. I would go as far as to say that the conclusion is far better than the build up which is flat and ponderous offering little to make one care about proceedings.

Two major stars have, for some obscure reason, decided that their film outing this year is going to be in a big dumb popcorn movie. Well, it's certainly dumb but the quality (and even the disappointing setting) is anything but big. Jeff Bridges spends the entire film with a look of angst plastered on his face, and Meryl Streep, in an unflattering wig, once again proves that she is a compelling force despite bad material.

The special effects have a cut price feel to them and the only real show of imagination thrown up is to have the film slowly transcend from black and white to colour as the young lead protagonist expands his knowledge. Finally, the images used to represent past memories, obviously taken from stock footage, are not only unexceptionally bad choices, but also of rather poor quality.