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TV show review: CONTINUUM season 4
PHOTOGRAPHY

THE GIVER

Movie review by David Blackwell

 

95 minutes, rated PG-13

STUDIO: The Weinstein Company/ Walden Media

Theatrical RELEASE DATE: 8-15-2014

THE GIVER is a very visual movie and those visuals play on your emotions.  Based on what I heard from reviewers and a friend who has read the book, the movie might be a Cliff Notes version of the book.  Phillip Noyce does create a visually impressive movie which touches on a few philosophical ideas, but it is a little too short and make you wonder how the movie would have been if they let it run for a little longer than 90 minutes.

 

THE GIVER takes place in a somewhat peaceful dsytopia at least a few decades in the future where Sameness is the law and emotion is controlled in addition to memories of the past blocked from memory except for the person known as the Giver (Jeff Bridges.  Jonas is chosen to be the Receiver of Memory where he will train under the Giver to be the next Giver.    However, the Giver share memories with Jonas of what the world has forgotten and the Elders don’t want known, but the Giver has other ideas.  It also revolves around an uncertain child named Gabriel that Jonas shares memories with.  Jonas feels love for a girl he has known all his life when he stops taking his medication.

 

THE GIVER is a film about why it is important to have memories and emotions.  Precise language isn’t enough and we should be able to choose our role in life in addition to being able to feel love.  It starts out as a place that seems like utopia, but THE GIVER is one of those cold dystopias that must be taken down.  Some may feel movies like DIVERGENT have already tread the same territory, but the novel that the movie is based on has been around for years before DIVERGENT was even written and published.  It isn’t going to be the great film like DIVERGENT or THE HUNGER GAMES, but sadly it will just be a shell of a movie you might enjoy once and wish for more of a movie.  .  It will be worth one rental if you don’t see it in theaters

 

This review is ©8-24-2014 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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