The Giver (film)
The Giver is a 2014 American social science fiction film directed by Phillip Noyce and starring Jeff Bridges, Brenton Thwaites, Odeya Rush, Meryl Streep, Alexander Skarsgård, Katie Holmes, Cameron Monaghan, Taylor Swift, and Emma Tremblay. The film is based on the 1993 young adult novel of the same name by Lois Lowry.
The Giver premiered on August 11, 2014, and was released theatrically in the United States on August 15, 2014, grossing $67 million on a $25 million budget. It received a People's Choice Award nomination for "Favorite Dramatic Movie". However, it received generally mixed reviews from critics.
Plot
Following a calamity referred to as The Ruin, society has been reorganized. Conflict, pain, and suffering have been mostly removed from human experience, but emotion, love, freedom, individuality, and joy have also been removed. Babies are brought into being through genetic engineering, and sexual desire is chemically suppressed. All memories of the past are held by one person, the Receiver of Memory, for the purpose of shielding the rest of the community from pain. The Receiver of Memory and his/her protégé are the only persons able to see in color, an ability otherwise eliminated from the community to prevent envy. The community is ruled by elders, including a Chief Elder.Jonas is a 16-year-old boy whose best friends are Asher and Fiona. On graduation day, Jonas is told that he will become the next Receiver of Memory and will progressively receive memories from his predecessor, the Giver. During his training with the Giver, Jonas gradually learns about the past and about joy, pain, death, and love. Jonas stops taking his daily injections and begins to experience emotion. Those who leave the community are said to have been "released to Elsewhere", but Jonas learns that this is really a euphemism for death by lethal injection. Jonas also learns that the Giver's daughter, Rosemary, had preceded Jonas as Receiver of Memory. When she began her training, however, Rosemary became so distraught from the memories she received that she asked to be euthanized.
Jonas learned about memories received from the Giver. Jonas also shares his memories with a baby, Gabriel, who was brought home by his father. He develops a close relationship with Gabriel after discovering that he shared the birthmark Jonas has—the mark of a potential Receiver of Memory. He can also see in color.
Appalled by the deception of his community and by the Elders' disregard for human life, Jonas comes to believe that everyone should have memories of the past. Eventually, the Giver and Jonas decide that the only way to help the community is for Jonas to travel past the border of their land into the area called "Elsewhere". Doing this would release memories and color back into the community. When Jonas tries to leave his neighborhood, he encounters Asher. Asher tries to stop Jonas, but Jonas punches him. Jonas retrieves Gabriel—who is to be "released" for having failed to meet developmental markers—at the Nurturing Center.
Meanwhile, Jonas' mother and Asher go to the Chief Elder to tell them Jonas is missing. Jonas steals a motorcycle and drives away with Gabriel. Asher is assigned by the Chief Elder to use a drone to find Jonas and "lose" him. When Asher finds Jonas and Gabriel in the desert, Jonas implores Asher to trust him and let them go. Instead, Asher captures them with the drone, but then sets them free by dropping them into a river; when questioned by the Chief Elder, Asher lies and says that he has followed her orders.
Fiona is condemned to be "released" for helping Jonas. Just as she is about to be "released" by Jonas's father, the Giver tries to persuade the Chief Elder that the Elders should free the community. Unmoved by the Giver's arguments, the Chief Elder asserts that freedom is a bad idea because left to their own devices, people make bad choices.
Jonas and Gabriel enter a snowy area. Jonas falls to the ground, overcome by the cold weather. However, he sees a sled like the one that he rode in a memory he received from the Giver. Jonas and Gabriel ride the sled downhill and cross the border into Elsewhere, freeing their community. This action saves Fiona's life, as Jonas's father realizes what he is doing and stops short of "releasing" her. Jonas realizes that he has succeeded in his quest.
Cast
Production
initially wanted to film the movie in the mid-1990s, and a script was written by 1998. Various barriers marred the production of the film, including when Warner Bros. bought the rights in 2007. The rights then ended up at The Weinstein Company and Walden Media.Bridges originally intended that his own father, Lloyd Bridges, would play the title character, The Giver, but he died in 1998.
Principal photography began on October 7, 2013 in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Meryl Streep had some of her scenes shot in England, where she also filmed Rob Marshall's Into the Woods, before doing additional filming two months later in Paarl, a town near Cape Town. The filming was completed on February 13, 2014 in Utah.
Music
The score for The Giver was composed by Marco Beltrami. The song "Ordinary Human" by OneRepublic was featured in the movie. The film also features Tori Kelly's "Silent". The soundtrack was released on August 5, 2014 by Interscope Records.Release
The first official trailer for the film was released on March 19, 2014. On April 11, 2014, more footage from the film was revealed. A second trailer was released on June 4.On July 11, 2014, it was announced that The Weinstein Company and Walden Media would be teaming up with Fathom Events to stream the red carpet premiere to more than 250 theaters in the US on August 11, four days before its official release. Ziegfeld Theatre hosted the film's premiere in New York City.
Reception
Box office
The Giver grossed $45.1 million in North America and $21.9 million overseas for a worldwide total of $67 million, against a production budget of $25 million.The film earned $4.7 million on its opening day. In its opening weekend, the film grossed $12.3 million, finishing in 5th place at the box office.
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 35% based on 160 reviews with an average rating of 5.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Phillip Noyce directs The Giver with visual grace, but the movie doesn't dig deep enough into the classic source material's thought-provoking ideas." On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 47 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."Richard Roeper gave the film a "C" and stated that "the magic gets lost in translation".
Accolades
| Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
| Denver Film Critics Society 2014 | Best Original Song | "Ordinary Human" | |
| Heartland Film 2014 | Truly Moving Picture Award | ||
| Hollywood Music In Media Awards 2014 | Soundtrack Album | ||
| 41st People's Choice Awards | Favorite Dramatic Movie | ||
| Joey Awards 2014 | Young Actress Age 9 or Younger in a Feature Film Leading Role | Emma Tremblay |