Technical 3.5 Moral
assessment: 3.5 CINEMA rating: V14
Friends since childhood
Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), Fiona (Odeya Rush), and Asher (Cameron Monaghan),
graduates-to-be, are looking forward to adult life in a futuristic society that
knows no suffering, hunger, injustice, pain, and violence. Presiding at the graduation ceremony is
Chief Elder (Meryl Streep), present in hologram form, who assigns each graduate different functions that will
shape their adult lives. Citizens
in this sanitized society inject themselves daily with a serum that erases
memories and suppresses their emotions, individuality, choice, freedom,
temptation, and religion. Jonas is
the last to be given an assignment, but he gets the heaviest one—as the
community’s new “Receiver”, the repository of historical memories that average
citizens are not allowed to access.
For this position he learns the ropes from the current Receiver, known
as the “Giver” (Jeff Bridges), who is weary from bearing all the past memories
and who must pass on the knowledge of this “real world” to his trainee
Jonas. Jonas soon realizes
emotions enrich life, and discovers the Elders’ secrets as well.
The Giver is based on a 1993 bestseller by Lois Lowry, and in the
hands of adept director Philip Noyce (Salt)
it faithfully translates the message of the book into memorable moving
images. The prestige cast delivers
solid acting but it almost plays a supporting role to Emery’s powerful
images. It is the look of The Giver that gives a sense of
realness to the otherwise fictitious story. The creative interspersing of color visuals in a
predominantly black and white film aids in advancing the story and drawing a
well-defined line between rich and impoverished emotional states. Scenes which are devoid of emotion are
depicted in black and white; those that are rife with feeling are gently and
gradually awash with color. In
receiving past memories, Jonas’ perception of things is portrayed by the camera
through exaggeratedly vivid hues.
With its well-developed
themes, The Giver serves meaty
issues for young adults to ponder and discuss—all related to life. Happily, the film does not preach, yet
everything about it underscores the value and sanctity of life. This supposedly Utopian society, deemed
ideal by mere human standards, equates perfection with conformity to the
rule. People wear virtual
uniforms—no fashionistas allowed; each family is allowed two children, one boy
and one girl, who are genetically engineered “replacements” for their parents. Even their homes are identical—the
opening scene is an aerial shot of the community’s residential district, and
the all-white houses at first glance strongly resemble the crosses on a
cemetery’s green lawn. We suspect
this is intentional, as though to denote lifelessness in uniformity.
What is most heartening
in this film is its unequivocal pro-life message that people of faith will
definitely resonate with. There’s
a point when Jonas begins to believe that the knowledge he receives must also
be shared with others—that is when he discovers that the community’s Elders, in
their dogged determination to maintain a perfect society, eliminate flawed
babies and old people too fragile to keep alive.
