My Review of "The Giver"

I admit that I have never heard of The Giver when I first saw it on Netflix. Apparently this movie came out back in 2014 but I guess they didn't advertise it too well because I never heard of it. It's surprising too because they have a pretty big cast playing in this movie. The premise of the movie is pretty interesting as well. Although some of you might groan a little when you hear what it's about. I thought it was fun.

This movie is about this kid named Jonas, played by Brenton Thwaites. He has two childhood friends by the name of Fiona, played by Odeya Rush, and Asher, played by Cameron Monaghan. They are just approaching adulthood but things work a little different where they live. This trio happen to live in a Utopian community where there's no conflict because everyone's fate is decided by a group of select elders. When everyone reaches a certain age they are assigned a career.

Jonas happened to be appointed one of the most important careers of the community called a receiver. His new job is to retain all knowledge of the past. A daunting task since much of the knowledge that he will have to retain will have to be kept away from the community to retain it's Utopian lifestyle. It's actually a little funny because he's told that he's going to have to lie and keep the information to himself but it's a movie so he has to tell people about it. Don't think too much about the kids not knowing that they're being recorded everywhere because that might totally ruin the movie for you. Sorry I even mentioned it...

Obviously all of the worlds knowledge is too much for one kid to handle by himself at one time so the old receiver, played by Jeff Bridges, now becomes the new giver. A play on words to say that he's Jonas' new receiver teacher. Through the giver's teachings Jonas learns about love, hate, music, and all the other things that the community is unaware of because the information can incite issues among themselves.

Questions of morality quickly come to play as Jonas learns more about what the community has been deprived of. He weighs the impact of releasing this information to the community to the peace that they enjoy everyday. I liked it when they have moral questions come into play in movies. The problem was that the way they asked these questions in the movie it was more like they were asking a rhetorical question.

The movie almost seemed as thought it was made by a group of high school kids that had recently read novels like 1984, Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World. They have a bright eyed optimism that all the characters will just live a happier life if they make the changes that they are about to do.

This is okay for this movie though because of the target audience that they're going after. While watching the movie you can obviously tell that they are going for a young adult audience with the love story and the weak friendship links of the characters. It is a nice little popcorn movie to have fun with. I wouldn't say that it will blow your mind though.

Overall, despite the fact that the story was pretty simple and predictable I was able to have fun with this movie. I have to mention there's a ton of plot holes at the end. If you're going to have some enjoyment of the movie don't think too hard. There's some pretty fun cameos that people might enjoy throughout the movie too. I think I'll have to give this movie a 6.5 out of 10. It's enjoyable enough for a viewing but no more than that.