Review of The Giver (2014) by Matthew P — 02 Dec 2014

I enjoyed Jeff Bridges, I thought he was miscast, but he did a better job than I would have expected. I did not hate this film, it only made too many odd artistic choices that I believe the director/producers may have felt would make this story more accessible. The book is a best seller, I don't feel stuffing it into a conventional Hollywood plot or putting in an appearance of Taylor Swift was at all needed or helpful.

While the novel was subdued and allowed the reader to decide what they felt about the world that Jonas was growing up in. The film assumed the audience was stupid and gave us a moral crescendo, beating us over the head with "the message." The characters also showed emotion, all you need to do is look at the TV characters of Spock or Data, from Star Trek, to know how to make an emotionless character. Instead of being neutral, the characters were constantly being ditsy or annoyed.

The film failed as an adaptation, but was not completely unwatchable. I enjoyed how they expressed color and the loved the set for The Giver's library.