Movie Review: The Giver

Director: Phillip Noyce
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Brenton Thwaites, Alexander Skarsgård, Katie Holmes

Dystopia in Utopia. It’s a concept older than the theories of Darwin. Yet our romanticism with the thought refuses to die down. Year after year we concentrate sci-fi efforts to tell new iterations of the same old. You don’t mind being amused when the effort is fresh and genuine, but how much of monotony and repetition can one take? The Giver is just one more addition to the YA sci-fi genre. Another bag full of clichés and worn out philosophy, stating the all too obvious.

In the future, as is the norm of the genre, human beings live in perfectly synchronized communities where there is no discrimination on race, religion or even social class. It’s a flawless world of equal opportunities. The catch, as is also the norm of the genre, is that primal human instincts and urges are controlled by every morning medications and strict social diktat. Humans are living robotic lives missing out on the joys of anarchy. To err is to be human is a vehemently opposed thought. Continuing in genre prerequisites a young boy gets the chance to change it all.

The point is not that The Giver is well made. The point is it’s been made well so many times you don’t have to tell the story any more. You can put a twist to it and try to surprise your audience. But director Phillip Noyce’s futuristic fable refuses to part with its vanilla flavour. It plays out so seriously and so spuriously that it nearly becomes a bore. If you like dramatic arcs and angles to your story or if you’re intrigued by the notion of “shake things up” you’ll be unmistakably disappointed with The Giver. No surprise since Noyce has a habit of being steady and safe. Case in point, his previous offerings like Salt, Saint and The Bone Collector.

Talking of YA fiction this movie is no different than The Twilight series, Divergent and so many in the same league. As is the trend, it’s adapted from a children’s bestseller by author Lois Lowry. It does stay away from mindless and half-baked action and chooses to delve into deeper philosophy. The dialogue “there’s a difference in knowing something and feeling it” is but a thin silver lining. But that is the selling point of this movie. Life isn’t meant to be controlled. It’s supposed to be lived, bared and survived, no matter how good, bad or ugly.

Having the indelible Meryl Streep and the charming Jeff Bridges together in a movie sounds like a casting coup. But even their best talents can’t thaw out the deeply refrigerated treatment. The characters, their situations and their emotions are ice cold. You never feel the much required spike of passion. It just flat lines into an open ending. The young and spirited would just say, WTF.