Giver, The : Movie Review


Would it really be preferable to strip away one's most difficult and trying emotions—pain, remorse, anger, melancholy—rather than not have any feelings at all? In "The Giver," based on Lois Lowry's best-selling, Newbery Medal-winning 1993 novel, an alternate reality is imagined that becomes increasingly menacing in its detached, superficial complacency. As directed by Phillip Noyce (2010's "Salt") and adapted for the screen by Michael Mitnick and Robert B. Weide, the film strikes a handsomely conceived, thematically mature chord that helps it to break free from its YA fantasy labeling. Lowry's book has become a respective mainstay on middle school reading lists nationwide, but its acclaim comes from its expansive ideas and free-thinking existentialism. This darkly riveting movie version lives up to said source material.

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Author : Dustin Putman