The film version of Lois Lowry’s 1993 book, The Giver, was unimaginative and lengthy to say the least. The movie focuses on Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) the new receiver of memories. In the book Jonas is eleven years old, to highlight his innocence and ignorance of the world but, in the film Jonas is played by Brenton Thwaites, 24 at the time, the casting agents do this in an attempt to draw in the young, and swooning audience. Joined by his two best friends Fiona (Odeya Rush) and Asher (Cameron Monaghan), both far older than stated in book, the movie does nothing more than boring the audience and leaving them disappointed.

I had high hopes for this movie, I really did, but I expected it to be more hard hitting, and even a little controversial like the book. The book was engaging and I thoroughly enjoyed reading the entire series. The rest of the star-studded cast felt out of place. Meryl Streep as the chief elder, Jeff Bridges as the Giver, Katie Holmes as Jonas’s mom, Alexander Skarsgård as Jonas’s dad and unnecessary 3 second cameo of Taylor Swift as Rosemary. All of the characters were one dimensional and the actors appeared to be bored with their roles as well. Jeff Bridges looked like he was the only one mildly interested in his role. He had took on this movie as a passion project over twenty years ago, but when it was greenlighted by the Weinstein Company most of Bridges ideas went out the window.

Besides the lifeless cast, the plot lacked the oomph the book had. Lowry took chances and was creative in ways that shocked the reader.  The script was filled with every Hollywood cliche possible and was incredibly

predictable as are many young adult book to screen adaptations: The main character gains  new responsibilities and then sets out to challenge an authority figure. For example, the Hunger Games, Divergent, and even the Harry Potter movies are filled with the exact same predictable plot. This lack of surprise was probably the reason for the rest of the books never being adapted to the big screen.

I did like aspects of the film though. It launched discussions about totalitarianism, and government control. Overall it can spark productive debate about a seemingly utopian society, where racism and sexism don’t exist. I also enjoyed the transition of perspective to/from each character. So, as Jonas starts to see color the film is able to effectively change the perspective of each character by highlighting these differences.

Overall, I give this movie a 2 out of 5 stars. The unimaginative plot and lifeless cast didn’t translate well over to the audience and he movie lacked the excitement and nuances of the book. As someone who has read the book the movie was too safe and failed to impress me.