The Giver Movie Review by Ryan A. Loera

Stars:
Brenton Thwaites - Jonas
Jeff Bridges - The Giver
Meryl Streep - Chief Elder
Katie Holmes - Jonas's mother
Odeya Rush - Fiona
Alexander Skarsgard - Jonas's father
Cameron Monaghan - Asher

Director: Phillip Noyce
Release Date: August 15, 2014
Genre: Action / Fantasy / Drama
Rated PG-13

The Giver could be likened to movies like The Hunger Games and Divergent but that would be an over simplification.

Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) appears to be an ordinary teenager living in a somewhat dystopian community set sometime in the distant future. His friends, Fiona (Odeya Rush) and Asher (Cameron Monaghan), look just as ordinary as him.

In fact, everyone in his community looks pretty ordinary. They all dress in the same drab clothing and are completely devoid of all emotion. By which I mean they were all genetically engineered and modified to the point of no longer being able to feel any discernible emotions.

The sole purpose for doing this is to ensure the propagation of a completely gullible and non-rebellious race of people. Oh and in addition to not feeling emotions they also cannot see colors. They only see in black and white, even though they have no concept of black and white.

Then the day comes for Jonas and his friends to graduate and be assigned their lifetime careers. Asher is assigned the position of pilot, Fiona is assigned the position of nurturer and Jonas is assigned the position of Receiver. As in receiver of memories. The collective memories of all mankind throughout all of history.

Luckily, Jonas is trained to receive these ancient memories by the current Receiver (Jeff Bridges) who can now go by the title The Giver.

The Giver shares many wonderful memories with Jonas but he also shares some very hateful and violent memories with him. Jonas finds it hard to stomach them all but he is still grateful for being shown a forgotten yet important aspect of being human.

The more memories he receives the more he evolves into a distinct individual. Of course, this is considered to be very wrong by the elders of the community. The Chief Elder (Meryl Streep) eventually notices Jonas becoming individualistic but the only thing she can do to try to get him to stop is threaten his friends and family with uncertainty.

This movie has a great story, great performances by each actor, great special effects and great cinematography.

On a scale of 1 tamale to 10 tamales I give The Giver 8 tamales!

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