But perhaps it was only an echo...

This is a movie review post for The Giver. I will be discussing details regarding both the book and the movie, as well as the other three books in the series. 

So SPOILERS ahead!

I first read The Giver by Lois Lowry, about 14 years ago. I was in 8th grade and we were assigned a project to go along with the book. I don't remember all of the details, but it was called Project Utopia and my best friend Katy was in my group. Project Utopia had us creating a perfect society. Our society was called Horrorland and I think a werewolf family ruled over all the other monsters. That's about all I remember in regards to our project, but back to this book. 

The Giver is one of my favorite books, I have said over and over that one of the many reasons I finally decided I wanted to be a teacher was because of this book. I can not wait to teach this book. 

To me, The Giver was my first glimpse into this new genre of Young Adult Dystopian novels. The Giver is a precursor to The Hunger Games, Divergent, Partials, Unwind, The Maze Runner and so many others. I read an article that said, the main reason The Giver finally was made into a movie was due to the popularity of this genre. 

Jeff Bridges bought the movie rights to The Giver 18 years ago. That is how long he has been waiting to make this film. I am so glad he waited. 

When I first found out the movie was a real thing, that was actually happening, I panicked. What if it sucks? What if they don't do it right? I was set on the idea that the movie was going to be terrible. I saw the first trailer and this solidified my thoughts. 

Jonas was too old. The community looked too futuristic and why was Jonas kissing Fiona?

I was also worried about the abundance of color in the trailer. One of the most memorable scenes in the book is when Jonas begins to see colors. I was adamant that the filmmakers would have to begin the film in black and white and eventually bring color back. The trailer had a few instances of this idea, but not enough to make me believe they would do what I had imagined. 

I knew I was asking for a lot from a movie adaptation, but this was THE GIVER. I needed it to be done right. 

I read this article a few hours before I saw the movie and I sorta felt a little better about it. It is from Buzzfeed, so I wasn't sure of the accuracy of the interview, but most of it did seem correct after I actually saw the movie. 

Buzzfeed Interviews Lois Lowry

After reading how optimistic she felt about the film and how they asked her opinions on certain things really made me happy. 

So I bought tickets for the early 8pm showing at the Hoffman Center theater. I was babysitting that day and my dad was in Alexandria so it just seemed smart to meet there instead of driving home. I got done babysitting late, over an hour, so I decided to switch the tickets to the 9:15, so my dad and I wouldn't have to rush through dinner. 

We went to customer service to exchange the tickets and the girl there was like, "Oh we aren't showing The Giver tonight, something is wrong with our hard-drive" 

I stared at her and was like: "Um, so what now?"

Movie Theater Girl: Well I can give you tickets to another movie. 

Me: I want to see The Giver. Is it just this theater or all the AMC theaters?

Movie Theater Girl: I don't know. 

Me: Just give me a refund, we will go somewhere else. 

So she gives me a refund and I'm super ticked off at this point. What if we had come in at like 7:30, ready to line up for the movie and they told us this? We would have had NO time to drive to another theater to see the movie at a similar time. I don't think I'll be making my way back to this theater.

We ended up seeing the 10:30 at Potomac Mills, this was annoying because we had finished dinner at like 8:30 and had to find something else to do for an hour. 

I was feeling very annoyed at how the night was going so I didn't go into the movie theater in the best of moods. I really wanted the movie to suck, because at that point, ranting and raving about something was making me feel better. 

(Side Note: I finally saw a full trailer for The Maze Runner, I finished this book last week and really liked it. I'm currently reading the sequel, I am SO excited for this movie!)

And now my review: 

Let's first discuss the color. 

In the novel, Jonas lives in a community that has done away with many things in order to make everyone the same. This concept of "sameness" is explained with the idea that no one in the community is able to see color any more. 

The more I thought about how the film communicated this, I realized they had very much sucked the color out of the images they showed on the screen. It wasn't quite sepia tone and it wasn't quite black and white. It was just... bland and colorless. 

So in the book Jonas has the ability "to see beyond". The fact that he has this ability is why he is chosen to be the new Receiver of Memory for his community. In the book, he sees flashes of color, but he doesn't realize what it is. One of the most memorable scenes was when he sees the color of an apple and then the color of his friend Fiona's hair. The most vibrant memory the Giver gives Jonas, is of a sunset. In the film, this whole concept with the color is done BEAUTIFULLY! This right here is one of the main reasons I enjoyed the movie so much. 

The movie begins with no color and gradually, as Jonas begins to see more color, the audience does as well. It starts with red, he sees all of the red things, then eventually he begins to see everything else. The movie spans over a year, so each scene gets brighter and brighter. Even if you thought the movie was terrible, you have to admit they did an awesome job with this visual element. I was so happy they did this right because this was one concept I really ragged on when I first heard they were making a movie. 

On to the characters. 

One of the major differences was the age change. In the book, Jonas and his friends are 12 years old. In the film, they are 16. This was obviously done to attract a teen audience and to make the film more similar to Divergent and The Hunger Games. They also added in a bit of a romance. I did NOT like this at all and was the one thing that bothered me about the whole movie. 

I liked the actor that played Jonas, I felt he played the whole loss of innocence card very well, even though he is a 25 year old actor playing a 16 year old. One of he first major differences fans of the book will notice is the fact that this actor does not have pale eyes. This is very important in the book because this sets Jonas apart, but makes him similar to The Giver and baby Gabe. The eyes were a symbol that told the reader that this particular character was special. In the movie, they replaced the pale eyes with a small birthmark on the character's wrist. This is a minor change done because contacts couldn't be put on the babies that played Gabe. (My first thought... why not cast pale eyed babies? :P)

Jeff Bridges plays the title character, the Giver. Though I imagined him to be quite older, based on my book cover: 

I felt that Jeff Bridges did an outstanding job as this wise old man, who has been burdened with the pain of the past. He became this character and I assume this is because he loved the book so much. He is the one who bought the movie rights after all. Jeff Bridges' performance is another reason I enjoyed this movie so much. He really was able to keep the essence of the character, even in one of the cheesy scenes at the end where he tells Jonas he loves him. This is played so genuine, it brought tears to my eyes. 

I can't remember how much of a rebel the character was in the book because it has been so long since I've read it, but the conflict that was created in the film between the Giver and the Chief Elder was pretty amazing, even though it isn't in the book. 

Meryl Streep played the Chief Elder and she is definitely played as the main antagonist. In the book she isn't a major character but I can understand why they chose to use her as the bad guy in the film. The book doesn't have a central bad guy, the bad guy is more of a concept, so I think for moviegoers who have not read the book, this was a good call, plus it was Meryl Streep so it was a great performance. I especially loved the end of the film, when the memories are released back into the community. There was no dialogue, but the acting that Meryl Streep does with her face in this scene is great. 

Now for some secondary characters: 

Jonas' family. Alexander Skarsgård and Katie Holmes played Jonas' parents. I felt they did a good job, even though they were not in the film, as much as in the books. I really liked how the father character was played. He was perfect. Katie Holmes also did a good job (even though she seemed a little young to play a 16 year old's mother but she did a good job of playing a character who felt the rules were super important (she was the head of the justice department). Jonas's sister, Lily, was perfect. She was the cute inquisitive little girl I imagined. They did age her a few years as well, but she still did a good job. I liked the relationship they created between her and Jonas.

Jonas' Friends. Asher and Fiona are Jonas' best friends in the book and in the film. The film makers did their darndest to create a love triangle and this annoyed the heck out of me. First off, Jonas' "stirrings" about Fiona were a ploy in the book to show that Jonas' was exploring new emotions and feelings that had been stifled due to medication members of the community were forced to take every morning. In the book he is 12 years old, so a romantic plot isn't all that feasible. Jonas has a crush on Fiona but he isn't in love with her. The movie makes us think that Jonas and Fiona are in love. This is so wrong and not in line with the book because... Spoiler Alert, Jonas meets and marries someone else in the later books. Her name is Kira and she is introduced in book two, Gathering Blue. She is an AWESOME character and I would hate to see her replaced, if they decide to continue this Fiona and Jonas nonsense in later movies (if they ever get made). 

Anyway, Asher is turned into a pawn of the Chief Elder in the film. This was a little annoying because Asher is supposed to be the "Xander" of the group. Sweet and funny. Instead they make him seem jealous of Fiona and Jonas and then have him chase Jonas down and "lose" him. (Thankfully he lets Jonas go, but this part was a little bothersome)

When it comes to scenes that were cut out, the House of the Old was completely scrapped. Fiona even becomes a nurturer (and an accomplice of Jonas, when he steals Gabe) instead of a caretaker of the old. I liked the scenes in the house of the old in the book. I don't remember why, but looking back, I think it was because the way Jonas interacted with the older members of his community really told the reader about who he is as a character. 

The community it self felt a bit... wrong to me. I grew used to it as the film went on, but over all the community was nothing like I imagined it when I read the book. I imagined as being a bit more gritty not futuristic. This bothered me when I saw the trailer as well but I guess it does make sense, since this particular community was well off. In the later books we are introduced to other communities that seem impoverished, Jonas' community never felt this way.

So other than these little things, (mostly the Jonas/Fiona relationship) there was plenty that felt like it lept right off the page. 

The transference of the memories. This was awesome. Seeing the flashes of various images that the Giver gave Jonas was really cool. Most of it seemed like stock footage and news footage. I especially liked the images of snow and the sled that are so important to the end of the film.

The ceremony scenes. These were also different than I imagined, but they were really cool. They didn't go into extreme detail of each age group, but the ones they did show were done well. The only part that bothered me was when a girl was announced as a birthmother, they showed images of young pregnant girls. In the books (especially the fourth book) the position of birthmother is actually looked down upon and they live in isolation. In the fourth book, the main character Claire, had never seen a pregnant woman before. I'm guessing they didn't think this was relevant enough to keep in the movie, since it is more important in the fourth book. It would have been so cool if they incorporated Claire somehow. 

Okay, the last thing I want to discuss is one of the most powerful scenes in the movie. It is one of the most vivid scenes I remember from the book and they did it... sadly just how I imagined it. 

After they showed this scene (which had made me cry a little), I remember my dad just looking over at me his mouth hanging open. After the movie I told him how amazed I was that they actually did that scene justice. 

In the book, Jonas asks the Giver if he could see a release. In the community, the elderly are released to Elsewhere. To the members of the community, this is a joyous occasion. In reality, the old people are being killed. 

The release that the Giver shows Jonas is not of an old person, it is of a baby. Since the community thrives on order, twins are not allowed. If twins are born to a birthmother, the one with the lower weight is released. 

Jonas watches his own father (who is a nurturer, he cares for newchildren) kill a baby (lethal injection) and then gently place the baby in box and slide it down what one can assume is a garbage shoot. 

These scene is devastating to Jonas who now understands the concept of death and murder. The Giver has to tell Jonas that his father does not understand what he is doing and that it isn't his fault. It is the fault of the lack of memories. 

After seeing this release and hearing that the baby Gabe is scheduled to be released, Jonas begins his quest to leave the community and save the baby. 

The ending of the movie leans towards the optimistic interpretation of the ending. Many readers believe Jonas and Gabe die at the end, but don't worry. They don't. 

Overall I was really pleased with this film. I definitely can see myself using it in the classroom as a great book/movie comparison activity. I felt as though the themes and the essence of the story were all still in the film, though their were some major changes. 

I hope the movie does well because it would be awesome to see the other three books on the big screen. 

Okay. If you have stuck with me this long, you are awesome. I'm sorry for the lack of posting these past few weeks, things have been crazy and they are just going to get crazier! 

Dragon*Con is in 11 days, so I'm definitely going to be making a post about my cosplay before I head down to Atlanta. 

Until next time...