the giver movie review rotten tomatoes

20 years ago, Lois Lowry’s dystopian YA novel “The Giver” won the Newberry Medal. Creepy and prophetic, told in a kind of flat-affect voice, it has been a staple in middle-school literature curriculum ever since, introducing young students to sophisticated ethical and moral concepts that will help them recognize its precedents when they come to read the works of George Orwell or Aldous Huxley. Jeff Bridges has been attached as a producer to the film project for almost 20 years, and finally, “The Giver” is here, with Bridges in the title role. Directed by Phillip Noyce, with an adaptation of the book by Michael Mitnick , “The Giver” gives us the overall structure of Lowry’s original work, adds a couple of understandable details like a sweet little romance and then derails into an action movie in its final sequence, complete with attacks from the air and a hi-tech command center. Children have been thrilled by the book for 20 years, and a chase scene still proved irresistible. Despite a truly pained performance from Jeff Bridges and a beautifully imagined, three-dimensional futuristic world, “The Giver,” in wanting to connect itself to more recent YA franchises, sacrifices subtlety, inference and power.

“The Giver” takes place in a community at some point in the indeterminate future where “Sameness” is prized above all else. Multiple factors have gone into creating a monochromatic world (literally, colors have been erased) where individuality is crushed, a citizen’s every move is monitored from the moment of birth, natural families have been replaced by artificial “family units” and choice has vanished. A soothing voice makes passive-aggressive scolding announcements over loudspeakers. The Giver’s cavernous dwelling, perched on the edge of a cliff, is a gloomy and masterful set, overlooking the clouds gathered below, making The Giver appear like Citizen Kane, holed up in his mansion surrounded by accumulated possessions and raw pain.

“Precision of language” is enforced, and so people are constantly apologizing and saying “I accept your apology” to each other, but in a rote way that drains the language of meaning. “The Giver” is a cautionary tale about what happens when language is controlled and limited—ground well covered for all time in “1984”—where citizens have no language available to them outside of “newsspeak.” Memories are gone, too, in “The Giver”. One person in the Community is chosen to be “The Receiver” of a collective memory, memories of now-extinct experiences like love and war and sex and pain. Through the course of the film, the young Jonas ( Brenton Thwaites ), chosen to be the next Receiver, is introduced to complexity and emotion and his entire concept of the world as he knows it shatters. He must now make a choice: to stay or to flee. It’s a powerful set-up, made even more stark by Noyce’s choice to film the majority of the film in black-and-white. When Jonas starts to see colors again, there are unavoidable “ Pleasantville ” connections.

Jonas is raised in a family unit, with Katie Holmes and Alexander Skarsgård acting as parental units. He has two best friends, Fiona ( Odeya Rush ) and Asher ( Cameron Monaghan ), and they are about to “graduate from childhood,” and take on their assigned jobs in the community. There is a gigantic ceremony, led by the Chief Elder (Meryl Streep, who shows up as a holograph the size of a building), and each child is called to the stage to receive their assignments. The entire community gathers in a massive stadium, everyone dressed in identical white, so it looks like a gigantic celestial choir or a formal-dress LGAT workshop. Everyone speaks in unison. Everyone claps the same way. Everyone looks forward. No one moves. The effect is eerie.

Jonas is surprised when he is not assigned a job at all. He is, instead, “selected” to be the next Receiver, because he apparently has the ability to “see beyond.” He has no idea what that means. Jeff Bridges, who becomes The Giver once a new Receiver is chosen, sits in the front row of the stadium, grim and remote. The thousands of people present start to chant in a repetitive whisper, “Jonas … Jonas … Jonas …”

The training sessions, when they come, are part Mr. Miyagi, part vision quest, and part “Quantum Leap.” The Giver bombards Jonas with memories from all of humanity, memories that thrust Jonas into the thick of the action: he feels snow falling for the first time, he is shown the full spectrum of colors, he is given shaky-cam experiences of war, he also dances around a Maypole with a saucy wench while wearing a pirate shirt. There are multiple quick-shot montage sequences of smiling babies, praying Muslims, crashing waves, paper lanterns, crying elderly people. The music swells, pushing the emotions on us, but the montages have the opposite effect intended. Instead of revelatory glimpses of the rich tapestry of human experience, they seem like Hallmark-collages uploaded on YouTube. Noyce has also made the questionable choice to co-opt real-world events, and so suddenly we see Tieneman Square in the montage, or the Arab Spring, or Nelson Mandela. It’s cheap, hoping to ride the coattails of others, as opposed to finding a visual form and style that will actually express the strength of the human spirit.

Jonas begins to look around him with new eyes. He wants to kiss Fiona. He wants to have the choice to feel things that may be unpleasant. He is not allowed to share his training with others.

The young actors in the film are pretty nondescript, the lead included, although Thwaites seems to come alive in mischievous ways when he starts to take care of a fussy newborn who can’t stop crying at night. Holmes and Skarsgård are both strange and unplaceable, playing human beings whose emotions are entirely truncated. “Precision of language, please,” says Mother at the dinner table when one of her children starts to speak. Bridges galumphs across the screen, a madman out of Melville, tormented, lonely, in and out of reality. His memories sometimes flatten him. There is one moment where he tells Jonas what the word is for the “feeling between people,” and his eyes burn with pain and loss as he says, “Love. It’s called love.” It’s the only powerful moment in the film. His emotion is so palpable it reaches off the screen and grips your throat.

The use of heavy explanatory voiceover to open and close the film is disappointing, especially since a couple of lines have been added to the famous last paragraph of the book. Not surprisingly, the lines added remove it from the moody ambiguous statement of hope that it is in the book, and turn it into a complete platitude. We’ve heard it a hundred times before. It emanates Sameness with every word.

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O’Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master’s in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

• Jeff Bridges as The Giver
• Brenton Thwaites as Jonas
• Meryl Streep as Chief Elder
• Taylor Swift as Rosemary
• Alexander Skarsgård as Jonas's father
• Odeya Rush as Fiona
• Cameron Monaghan as Asher
• Katie Holmes as Jonas' mother
• Michael Mitnick
• Robert B. Weide
• Phillip Noyce

Cinematography

Leave a comment, now playing.

Devara: Part 1

Will & Harper

Amber Alert

The Universal Theory

I, The Executioner

The Apprentice

Daddy’s Head

Latest articles

A Careful Performer: Maggie Smith (1934-2024)

Home Entertainment Guide: September 2024

New York Film Festival 2024: Preview and Thoughts on “The Brutalist,” “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”

The Registers of Fear: Samara Weaving on “Azrael”

The best movie reviews, in your inbox.

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘the giver’: what the critics are saying.

Phillip Noyce's adaptation of Lois Lowry's dystopian novel stars Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Brenton Thwaites, Alexander Skarsgard, Katie Holmes, Taylor Swift and Odeya Rush

By Ashley Lee

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Send an Email
• Show additional share options
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Pinterest
• Share on Reddit
• Share on Tumblr
• Share on Whats App
• Print the Article
• Post a Comment

The Giver , out Friday, brings Lois Lowry ‘s 1993 Newbery Medal-winning young-adult novel to the big screen, with Jeff Bridges playing the title character after a 20-year journey to adapt the dystopian title.

Directed by Phillip Noyce , The Weinstein Co. and Walden Media $30 million film also stars  Meryl Streep , Brenton Thwaites , Alexander Skarsgard , Katie Holmes , Taylor Swift , Cameron Monaghan , Odeya Rush and Emma Tremblay , and is expected  to debut in the mid-teens. It will be playing in roughly 3,000 locations.

Read what top critics are saying about The Giver :

The Hollywood Reporter ‘s film critic John DeFore  calls it “an agreeable YA riff on Orwell — via Logan’s Run — topped with the kind of magic-transformative baloney that passes for an ending in too many otherwise-fine Hollywood adventures.” He notes that “Noyce is unsurprisingly capable,” “Streep is wasted as the heavy, enforcing conformity,” and Skarsgard “more than anyone in the cast finds a way to embody Sameness while being unmistakably human.”

In the world of The Giver , “with the exception of the psychic sessions between Jonas and the Giver, everything about this scenario is grounded in the physical world; order is maintained not by some ancient magic, but by technology, pharmaceuticals and old-fashioned authoritarianism.” Therefore, of its lazy ending, he writes, “the hurdle Jonas eventually faces is more akin to the enchanted object that a wizard-battling hero can simply smash to break the spell enslaving his kingdom. Wham-bam, no need for feel-good scenes of the peace he has brought to his fellow peasants. This easy out should go over especially badly with readers attached to the novel’s much more ambiguous end — though to be fair, audiences by now are so used to this type of nonsense that it hardly even registers.”

The New York Times ‘ Manohla Dargis notes that “the enervating hash of dystopian dread, vague religiosity and commercial advertising-style uplift is nothing if not stale,” adding that scenes “mostly evoke one of those tear-jerking commercials that sell their wares with gurgling babies and squirming puppies.” The script is deemed “lamentable” and the film is “saddled with cheap digital effects and sets that needed more money or imagination or both.” Though the book paved the way for The Hunger Games  and Divergent, both film adaptations helped to make The Giver more marketable, yet “scene by formulaic scene, narrative cliche by cliche — [it] can’t help but come off as a poor copy of those earlier pictures.”    

The       Los Angeles Times ‘ Kenneth Turan says, “It’s not that there’s anything terribly wrong with The Giver , … It’s more that the resulting film has a bland, earnest, even pokey quality that no amount of tinkering with the book’s plot has rectified,” pointing out its inherently action-less plot and twice-written script. The “added action sequences and increased melodrama feel half-hearted, where whatever stabs at tension and conflict we see have a clunky, manufactured air. … The problem with The Giver  is not that it departs from the book by adding things such as surveillance drones and hints of romance, it’s that it has been unable to find a way to make the essence of the novel cinematically involving.”

The Boston Globe ‘s Ty Burr writes that it’s “a family-friendly dystopian nightmare that won’t offend anyone but won’t get them very excited, either.” The production design of going from black-and-white to color “ works, to a point, allowing us to access the world’s greater beauty at the same speed with which Jonas does. The sequences between the hero and the Giver are easily the film’s most interesting — they dramatize the birth of awareness — even if Bridges pushes his character’s great age into caricature at times. Thwaites does sincere well and existential agony rather less well. Streep seems to have summoned the minimum amount of her immense talent for this very sketchy role.”

USA Today ‘s Claudia Puig  gives the film two stars out of four and praises the adult performances over the teen character portrayals. “While the 1993 book was a thoughtful, subtle meditation on mind control and the blandness of life in a pseudo-Utopia, the movie doesn’t convey that depth, … it lacks the resonance and mythic quality of Lowry’s literary allegory.” The memory sequences are less poignant onscreen than in prose, now like “a United Colors of Benetton ad,” but the “movie’s weakest segment is an extended action climax that turns this potent allegory — and its open-ended denouement — into a generic action thriller, complete with drones and menacing enforcers racing around on motorized bikes.”

Email: [email protected] Twitter: @cashleelee

Related Stories

'the giver': meryl streep, jeff bridges, taylor swift fete memories at nyc premiere, thr newsletters.

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Oscars: china picks wwii doc ‘the sinking of the lisbon maru’ for international feature category, ‘nickel boys’ director ramell ross on how film’s subjective point of view serves as an “experiment of perception”, kris kristofferson, idol of country music and the movies, dies at 88, john ashton, ‘beverly hills cop’ actor, dies at 76, lamorne morris relates to garrett morris’ experience as the first black cast member of ‘snl’, paul feig partly blames trump for all-female ‘ghostbusters’ hate: “everybody went f***ing cannibal”.

The Giver Review

25 Jun 2014

NaN minutes

Nearly 20 years in development, Lois Lowry’s YA classic arrives neutered by familiarity: another dystopia, another Chosen One. There’s life in Jeff Bridges’ hippy “mind” mentor. The drama, however, is as sterile and glassy-eyed as the world it’s trying to escape.

Related Articles

Movies | 02 07 2015

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Movie Reviews

'the giver' strikes old and ominous notes about the dark side of serenity.

Mark Jenkins

Jeff Bridges (left) produces and stars as the title character in The Giver , alongside Australian actor Brenton Thwaites, who plays Jonas, his young apprentice. The Giver is the first film rendition of the popular 1993 young adult novel by Lois Lowry. Courtesy of The Weinstein Co. hide caption

Jeff Bridges (left) produces and stars as the title character in The Giver , alongside Australian actor Brenton Thwaites, who plays Jonas, his young apprentice. The Giver is the first film rendition of the popular 1993 young adult novel by Lois Lowry.

Multiplexes Heat Up For Summer Blockbuster Season

Arts & life, australian filmmaker phillip noyce gets serious.

It might seem hard to describe The Giver without revealing some of those plot points that touchy suspense fans call "spoilers." But this brisk, deftly art-directed parable is basically unspoilable. Even viewers who know nothing of its source, Lois Lowry's 1993 novel, will be able to anticipate every development.

That's because Lowry's vision of a serene but secretly corrupt future society offers little that wasn't imagined decades earlier in 1984 , Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 . Lowry just cooked such books down for a preteen audience that hasn't read them.

After years of trying, producer and star Jeff Bridges finally got The Giver made because of the success of The Hunger Games and similar tales of noble teens in a world run by manipulative adults. So the first task was aging the novel's protagonist (Jonas, played by Brenton Thwaites) from 12 to 16.

Jonas lives in a community, called "the community," that's any high schooler's vision of hell: It's run by guidance counselors. Where in Divergent the kids were separated into different castes upon graduation, in The Giver they're given specific assignments. None is more specific than Jonas'. He's the new receiver, assigned to learn the real history of humanity from the bearded, avuncular title character (Bridges, clearly enjoying the sound of his own voice).

Katie Holmes (left) and Alexander Skarsgard play Jonas' parents, who support the efforts of The Giver 's dystopian government. David Bloomer/Courtesy of The Weinstein Co. hide caption

Katie Holmes (left) and Alexander Skarsgard play Jonas' parents, who support the efforts of The Giver 's dystopian government.

Among the many questions the movie barely attempts to answer is, why do the positions of giver and receiver exist? The elders, led by an often holographic Meryl Streep, don't want anyone else to know about the bad old days of war, famine and hatred. So why not assign Jonas to flip burgers for the rest of his life, and send the Giver on a long walk off a short pier?

Because, of course, there is violence just beneath the community's veneer of calm. That's one of the alarming if unsurprising things Jonas learns once he starts receiving — and stops taking his daily dose of mood controller. As in the substantially more macho Equilibrium , ingestion of a Valium-like drug is required. This relaxant suppresses emotion and individuality, and even its users' ability to distinguish color. So the first part of The Giver is in black and white, like Pleasantville .

If the movie hits ominous notes, they've all been heard many times before: There are no books or music in the futuristic planned community, human reproduction is controlled by the state, kissing is unknown, and families are not genetically related. Jonas has merely been assigned to his father (Alexander Skarsgard) and mother (a drawn-faced Katie Holmes).

To make it less of a kiddie story, director Phillip Noyce and scripters Michael Mitnick and Robert B. Weide have added romance (Jonas has the unauthorized hots for a classmate played by Odeya Rush) and boosted the action. There are chase scenes — including one on a bike path that's lighted even though people aren't allowed to go out at night — and confrontations. Also modestly exciting are the fragmentary flashbacks to a former receiver, played by Taylor Swift. (She and the community broke up, and they are never ever getting back together.)

Ultimately, Jonas must make a choice, and leave his sterile home for the forbidden outback. It's not a spoiler to reveal that he finds a refuge there. Or that this new abode offers the sort of picture-postcard coziness that could have been simulated by his former community's devious elders.

Film Review: ‘The Giver’

What Lois Lowry hath given in her bestselling YA novel, this flaccid screen adaptation taketh away.

By Scott Foundas

Scott Foundas

• Film Review: ‘Black Mass’ 9 years ago
• Film Review: ‘The Runner’ 9 years ago
• Film Review: ‘Straight Outta Compton’ 9 years ago

Sameness, the conformist plague that afflicts the futuristic citizens of Lois Lowry’s celebrated and scorned YA novel, “The Giver,” might also be the name given to what ails the movie adaptation — the latest in a seemingly endless line of teen-centric dystopian fantasies that have become all but indistinguishable from one another. A longtime passion project for producer/star Jeff Bridges , “The Giver” reaches the screen in a version that captures the essence of Lowry’s affecting allegory but little of its mythic pull — a recipe likely to disappoint fans while leaving others to wonder what all the fuss was about. Any hopes by co-producers the Weinstein Co. and Walden Media that they might have the next “Hunger Games” (or even “Divergent”) on their hands look to be dashed by lackluster late-summer box office.

Related Stories

‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ Success Doesn’t Downplay Risky Reboots Coming to Theaters

'Pretty Little Liars' Canceled After Two Seasons at Max

Originally published in 1993 (six years before “The Matrix”), Lowry’s novel was itself a patchwork of ideas borrowed from Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Jack Finney and Ray Bradbury in its depiction of totalitarian groupthink masquerading as peaceable utopia. The setting was an unnamed anywhere known only as “the community,” whose residents had achieved a post-Platonic, post-Marxist ideal of a classless, conflict-free (and, though not explicitly stated, seemingly race-free) society through the chemical suppression of emotion and the erasure of all suspect stimuli (including books, colors, weather, and sex) from the historical record. Exempt from this rigorous burning of the past was one man: the Receiver of Memory, a grizzled community elder charged with keeping all human experience from time immemorial catalogued inside his own understandably addled brain.

Popular on Variety

If Lowry’s ideas weren’t anything new to genre buffs or sociology majors, what made her book so compulsively readable was the lucid simplicity of its prose and the surprising complexity of its arguments (especially for a novel aimed at children). Unlike a lot of speculative fiction, “The Giver” wasn’t a cautionary tale about nuclear or environmental apocalypse, but rather an envisaging of the even greater horror show we might effect through our ostensibly best impulses: to rid society of war, famine and other forms of suffering. It was a highly adaptable metaphor for any form of organized rhetoric, be it that of the religious right or the bleeding-heart left. And, taking a page from J.D. Salinger, Lowry didn’t just suggest that most adults were duplicitous phonies, but that they were capable of secretly murdering babies and the elderly without batting an eye. (Little wonder that “The Giver” was said to be banned from almost as many schools as made it compulsory reading.)

In bringing the book to the screen, director Phillip Noyce and screenwriters Michael Mitnick and Robert B. Weide have stayed reasonably faithful to the plot and characters while jettisoning much of the philosophical weight and making other, perhaps inevitable concessions to commerce. A mere 12 years old on the page, Lowry’s nonconformist hero, Jonas, is here played by the 25-year-old Australian actor Brenton Thwaites , while the incidental character of the community’s Chief Elder has been padded out into a ghoulish, Nurse Ratched-esque villain role for Meryl Streep (who appears alternately in real and holographic form, and seems equally disembodied in each). And with only partial success, Noyce, who’s long been one of the best action directors around (“Patriot Games,” “Clear and Present Danger,” “Salt”), tries to turn Lowry’s elegant, open-ended climax into a large-scale setpiece involving speeding motorbikes, drone aircraft and storm-trooper thugs rounding up dissidents into a Guantanamo-like prison.

The movie begins well enough, with our introduction to the community and its functional “dwellings” where Jonas lives with his dutiful but distant parents ( Alexander Skarsgard and Katie Holmes ) and younger sister, Lily (Emma Tremblay). Working on a modest budget, production designer Ed Verreaux and costume designer Diana Cilliers have given the film the spare, modular look of mid-century modernism — a feeling further enhanced by Noyce’s decision to shoot almost the entire first 30 minutes of the movie in low-contrast black-and-white, with color only gradually seeping into the frames as Jonas learns to “see beyond” (a variation on the technique employed by the 1998 “Pleasantville,” which itself may have been influenced by Lowry).

From there, “The Giver” goes on to chart the developing bond between the Receiver (Bridges) and Jonas, who has been selected to inherit the great storehouse of memory and carry on the older man’s legacy. The Receiver is Bridges in full-on stoner Buddha mode — a routine the actor has done so many times now (most recently in “Tron: Legacy”) that it should have descended into self-parody. And yet, Bridges is the most affecting thing in the movie — a man physically and spiritually exhausted by having to carry the emotional weight of the world on his shoulders. The same, unfortunately, can not be said of Thwaites, who barely registered as the young prince in “Maleficent” and makes even less of an impression here. As Jonas takes on ever more of the Receiver’s wisdom and experience, he’s meant to be shaken and stirred, pushed to the very brink of psychological endurance, but Thwaites plays it all with the same unwavering expression of sleepy, dumbstruck awe, more Harry Styles than Harry Potter.

Elsewhere, Israeli newcomer Odeya Rush flashes an entrancing come-hither stare, but otherwise sets off few sparks as the unrequited object of Jonas’ proscribed affections (or “stirrings,” as they’re known in community-speak), while country star Taylor Swift feels like the equivalent of human product placement in a thankless walk-on. But it’s hard to know what exactly to feel for Holmes, who’s casting as exactly the kind of dead-eyed Stepford wife the tabloids proffered during the TomKat years seems like someone’s idea of a cruel joke.

This year at the movies has given us two superior dystopia tales — “The Lego Movie” and “Snowpiercer” — rich in the kind of real emotion “The Giver” talks about a lot but never achieves. Instead, the more vibrant experience supposedly flows into the movie, the more canned everything seems. In the novel, Lowry conveyed the Receiver’s transmitted memories as indelible fragments of primal experience: the feeling of sun and snow against bare skin; the suffering of an innocent animal; the aftermath of a bloody combat. Noyce gives us those sensations, too, but he isn’t content to stop there, amping up Jonas’ visions into frenetic montages of global chaos and togetherness that feel like a cross between a Microsoft ad and a Save the Children infomercial. Skydivers plummet from dizzying heights, river rafters navigate raging rapids, the Berlin Wall crumbles and Tiananmen Square revolts. All that’s missing is a Peter Gabriel song.

Reviewed at Dolby 88, New York, Aug. 11, 2014. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 97 MIN.

• Production: A Weinstein Co. release presented with Walden Media of a Tonik/As Is Prods. production in association with Yucaipa Films. Produced by Nikki Silver, Jeff Bridges, Neil Koenigsberg. Executive producers, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Dylan Sellers, Ron Burkle, Alison Owen, Ralph Winter, Scooter Braun.
• Crew: Directed by Phillip Noyce. Screenplay, Michael Mitnick, Robert B. Weide, based on the novel by Lois Lowry. Camera (color, widescreen), Ross Emery; editor, Barry Alexander Brown; music, Marco Beltrami; music supervisor, Dana Sano; production designer, Ed Verreaux; supervising art director, Shira Hockman; art director, Catherine Palmer; set decorator, Andrew McCarthy; costume designer, Diana Cilliers; sound, Nico Louw; supervising sound editors, Philip Stockton, Paul Hsu; re-recording mixers, Paul Hsu, Michael Barry; visual effects supervisor, Robert Grasmere; visual effects producer, Paul V. Molles; visual effects, Method Studios, Mr. X Gotham, UPP, Crazy Horse East, The Molecule, Ensemble; ;stunt coordinators, Cordell McQueen, Frank Bare; line producer, Janine van Assen; associate producer/assistant director, Noga Isackson; second unit director, Robert Grasmere; second unit camera, Michael Swan; casting, Mary Vernieu, Venus Kanani.
• With: Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Brenton Thwaites, Alexander Skarsgard, Katie Holmes, Taylor Swift, Cameron Monaghan, Odeya Rush, Emma Tremblay, Jefferson Mays.

More from Variety

Audrey Diwan, Florian Zeller and Patrick Wachsberger Join France’s Revamped Oscar Committee

Hollywood’s Next Superhero: Purpose-Led Branding  

France’s Oscar Committee Reveals International Feature Shortlist Including ‘Emilia Perez,’ ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’

‘Monte Cristo’: Pathe Boss Ardavan Safaee Shares Strategy Behind French Box Office Reign, and Company’s English-Language Plans (EXCLUSIVE)

Generative AI Fueling ‘Exponential’ Rise in Celebrity NIL Rip-Offs: Exclusive Data

‘Emilia Perez,’ ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ to Be Showcased at the American French Film Festival’s Comeback Edition in Los Angeles

More from our brands, kris kristofferson, songwriter whose poetic lyrics transcended genre, dead at 88.

Review: Can-Am’s First Motorcycles in Decades Are Electric. Here’s How They Rate.

More Payroll, More Fans but Playoffs in Doubt for D-backs

The Best Loofahs and Body Scrubbers, According to Dermatologists

Kris Kristofferson, Country Singer and A Star Is Born Actor, Dead at 88

Common Sense Media

Movie & TV reviews for parents

• For Parents
• For Educators
• Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

• Movie Reviews
• Best Movie Lists
• Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

• Best TV Lists
• Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
• Common Sense Selections for TV
• Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

• Book Reviews
• Best Book Lists
• Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

• Game Reviews
• Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

• Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

• Podcast Reviews
• Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

• App Reviews
• Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

• YouTube Channel Reviews
• YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

• Preschoolers (2-4)
• Little Kids (5-7)
• Big Kids (8-9)
• Pre-Teens (10-12)
• Teens (13+)
• Screen Time
• Social Media
• Online Safety
• Identity and Community

Why Your Kid Should Read Banned Books

• Family Tech Planners
• Digital Skills
• All Articles
• Latino Culture
• Black Voices
• Asian Stories
• Native Narratives
• LGBTQ+ Pride
• Best of Diverse Representation List

Multicultural Books

YouTube Channels with Diverse Representations

Podcasts with Diverse Characters and Stories

Parents' guide to.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 27 Reviews
• Kids Say 107 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Pain makes life colorful in dystopian adaptation.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that the The Giver is a dystopian thriller based on author Lois Lowry's best-selling 1993 novel (which has sparked some controversy since its publication and landed on some banned-book lists). Since the novel is commonly used in middle school classrooms, the

Why Age 11+?

Jonas punches his friend in the face after a confrontation. Two people await let

Some hand holding, longing looks, and a couple of kisses. Discussion of how the

No language, since in the community, people don't curse.

Any Positive Content?

The movie's themes and messages echo the book's: how Sameness has eradic

The Giver is a complicated character because he seems so sad and unhappy, but it

Violence & Scariness

Jonas punches his friend in the face after a confrontation. Two people await lethal injection. An entire society has no idea that the term "releasing" means killing, so when a man "releases" a baby, or a group is told they're being "released," no one but Jonas and the Giver know what's happening. The Giver and Jonas have violent, disturbing dreams and visions of past horrors.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Some hand holding, longing looks, and a couple of kisses. Discussion of how the community handles adolescent "stirrings."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

The movie's themes and messages echo the book's: how Sameness has eradicated personal expression, how conformity is a threat to individuality, how having no choices for the sake of equality is really oppression, and more. The movie also tackles the tough subject of whether pain is necessary for joy and whether love and heartbreak are preferable to stability and community.

Positive Role Models

The Giver is a complicated character because he seems so sad and unhappy, but it's for an understandable reason. He's patient and teaches Jonas and encourages him to see the world for how it really is.

Parents need to know that the The Giver is a dystopian thriller based on author Lois Lowry's best-selling 1993 novel (which has sparked some controversy since its publication and landed on some banned-book lists). Since the novel is commonly used in middle school classrooms, the adaptation will appeal to tweens and teens who've read and loved it. Although there are some fundamental changes from the book (like the age of Jonas, the main character), the movie shares the book's central themes about the things that make life worth living, even if they're painful. The violent revelations are disturbing, especially ugly truths about what it means when citizens (including a baby) are "released into Elsewhere," but the movie isn't nearly as violent as comparable movies like The Hunger Games or Divergent . Like the movie, the book should launch some thoughtful conversations about totalitarianism, freedom of expression, and why utopian societies fail. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (27)
• Kids say (107)

Based on 27 parent reviews

Emotionally intense, disturbing violent images

A highly emotional movie, what's the story.

THE GIVER takes place in a futuristic utopian society called "the community," where, at age 16, residents prepare for their coming-of-age ceremony, where they're assigned a specific job -- like birth mother, nurturer, teacher, or security. Jonas ( Brenton Thwaites ) is surprised when, at the Ceremony for Advancement, the Chief Elder ( Meryl Streep ) announces that Jonas has been selected as the newest Receiver of Memory -- the one person in the community to understand all the pain and truths that the rest of the society is spared. His teacher will be The Giver of Memory ( Jeff Bridges ), who will impart all of his knowledge. But as Jonas begins his sessions with The Giver, he also starts seeing things as they really are, not as the community wants them to be -- he sees in color (everyone else sees in black and white) and develops feelings for his friend, Fiona ( Odeya Rush ). Worst of all, Jonas realizes that life with pain is preferable to the "Sameness" on which the community is based.

Is It Any Good?

This is an adaptation worth seeing, particularly for the conversations you can have once the credits roll. As anyone who has read Lois Lowry's source novel will immediately notice, the movie's Jonas is five years older than he is in the book (and Thwaites was actually already in his 20s while filming!), making him a full adolescent as opposed to being on the cusp of puberty. While the aging up works when it comes to focusing on the central romantic subplot, it may upset the tweens and younger teens who related to Jonas' journey precisely because he was their age, not a teen on the brink of adulthood like the majority of young adult protagonists. But more bothersome is the fact that viewers -- unlike readers -- are limited in their connection to the cinematic Jonas and what's going on in the community, because it's not really an action story like Divergent -- it's a story of ideas that's better experienced on the page.

Of all the actors, Alexander Skarsgard (as Jonas' father) does the most subtle work, portraying how, even in such a tightly controlled society, some individuals are more loving and nurturing, even if they don't fully understand what love means. Katie Holmes (as Jonas' mother) and Streep both play unquestioning proponents of Sameness, and Rush sure is beautiful, but because feelings are manipulated in the community, The Giver is not a romance on the swoony level of Katniss and Peeta's or Tris and Four's. The characters in the community, with the exception of Jonas and the Giver, must by their very nature act eerily dispassionate, even-keeled, and neutral about everything -- even throwing a dead baby down a garbage chute. That flatness, which is so freaky in the book, doesn't work quite as well on the screen.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the popularity of dystopian settings in young adult literature and movies. What is it about futuristic stories that appeals to readers and viewers?

How would you describe the violence in this movie? Is it scary? Disturbing? Why? Are there other parts of the movie that are nonviolent but also upsetting? How do they compare?

It took more than 20 years after the book was published for The Giver to hit the big screen. How do you think that timing affected its impact?

Fans of the book: Was the movie a faithful adaptation? What differences did/didn't you like, and which scenes from the book did you miss?

Movie Details

• In theaters : August 15, 2014
• On DVD or streaming : November 25, 2014
• Cast : Alexander Skarsgard , Jeff Bridges , Meryl Streep , Brenton Thwaites
• Director : Phillip Noyce
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Weinstein Co.
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : Book Characters
• Run time : 94 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : a mature thematic image and some sci-fi action/violence
• Last updated : June 21, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

What to watch next.

The Hunger Games

Ender's Game

City of Ember

Movies based on books, books like the hunger games, related topics.

• Book Characters

Want suggestions based on your streaming services? Get personalized recommendations

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

THE GIVER Review

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

The 10 Worst Horror Movies of the 1990s, Ranked

The 10 most popular movies on netflix right now, kevin bacon transforms into a predator in this devastating, haunting drama.

Trends come and go in Hollywood with varying degrees of success, and one of the genres that appears to be “in” at the moment is the YA adaptation—specifically films with a dystopian bent.  The Hunger Games and Divergent both dealt with young protagonists rebelling against oppressive, authoritarian governments, and while at first glance The Giver may look like a simple cash-in on the trend, the source material predates the current dystopian craze by over a decade.  The road to a feature film adaptation of Lois Lowry ’s novel has been long, but it now finally makes it to the screen with producer Jeff Bridges taking on the titular role.  However, though the film is surprisingly deft at handling some of the deeper questions raised by the book and boasts a pair of strong lead performances, the adaptation fails to flesh out other aspects of the story, resulting in a rather mixed bag.

The world of The Giver takes place in a society in which all emotions—and, by extension, choice—have been banished.  This manifests itself visually in the fact that the entire world is devoid of color, and everyone sees only in black and white.  Citizens live in “units” instead of homes, they’ve never heard or understood the word “love”, and at the age of 18, they graduate school and are placed in a profession that best suits their prevailing attributes.  The film begins at one such graduation ceremony, as one by one our protagonist Jonas’ ( Brenton Thwaties ) schoolmates are selected by the Chief Elder ( Meryl Streep ) to be nurturers or drone pilots or teachers.  But Jonas is skipped over.

Finally, the Chief Elder’s attention turns to Jonas, who lastly has been selected as the Receiver of Memory.  This is a unique job and one that comes with much uncertainty, as the specifics regarding the profession are unknown to the community at large.  All Jonas knows is that the Receiver holds all memories of human history and acts as an advisor to the chief council.  After being given instructions regarding his new profession that defy the way everyone else in the community acts (he is now allowed to lie, for example), Jonas makes his way to the home of the previous Receiver of Memory, who lives at the very edge of their community, isolated from everyone else.

The previous Receiver (Bridges), now called The Giver, is a somewhat jaded individual, and once he starts transferring memories to Jonas, we begin to see why.  The memories he holds are of a civilization full of emotions and color, as he introduces Jonas to snow, joy, sadness, loss, war, grief, and so much more.  By design, these concepts are alien to the community at large.  By removing choice, the elders have created—in their eyes at least—a utopian society without war, famine, or pain.  Never knowing what they’ve lost, the citizens go about their daily lives oblivious to how society used to run.  As Jonas’ world is upended, he begins to question the restrictive nature of his community and the strict way in which the Chief Elder managers her peoples.  Jonas’ eyes are opened to a world full of life, and he begins to take steps towards changing his community forever.

Director Philip Noyce ’s adaptation of Lowry’s novel actually starts out quite strong, as the entire world is drained of color and we see things through Jonas’ eyes.  Noyce introduces a compelling narrative and relative newcomer Thwaites holds his own opposite Streep with a quiet, inquisitive confidence, and he surprises by never composing himself as a hero.  Jonas is simply following his emotions, doing what he feels is right.  The scenes between Thwaites and Bridges in particular are excellent, as there’s a compassion and cautious reluctance behind Bridges’ mentoring that is at odds with Jonas’ thirst for knowledge.  These are the scenes in which Noyce delves deep into the central themes of the book, questioning whether the ability to feel joy and love is worth the tradeoff of also experiencing pain and loss.

However, as the plot thickens and the supporting characters are used to motivate Jonas into action, their underdevelopment renders much of his drive implausible.  Jonas becomes infatuated with his friend Fiona ( Odeya Rush ), but the character barely registers as memorable so it’s tough to see how Jonas could be so attached, therefore making it difficult to relate to his decision-making.  Additionally, the close bond between Jonas and his other friend, Asher ( Cameron Monaghan ), is a necessary drive for another key plot point, but again Asher is too underdeveloped to make the motivation work.  The community’s inhabitants are supposed to be devoid of emotion, so it’s a tough task for any actor to accurately portray, but Thwaites manages to be both charming and compelling while Rush and Monaghan come off more as robots than human beings.

As the plot becomes more complicated and the supporting characters become more integral, the film starts to falter.  I found myself longing for more scenes between Bridges and Thwaites as the obligatory set pieces started kicking into gear, and the final act comes to a rather unsatisfying and frustratingly simple conclusion.  There are a few bright spots in the subplots, such as Alexander Skarsgard ’s portrayal as Jonas’ oblivious yet ever-so-slightly rebellious father, but on the whole the relationship between Jonas and The Giver remains the most compelling part of the film by a wide margin.

Despite the complicated plot and fumbling of the supporting characters, the central dynamic between Bridges and Thwaites as well as Noyce’s handling of the themes are mostly enough to make the film a somewhat enjoyable experience, if not ultimately satisfying.  One imagines a lower-budgeted, more introspective film that wasn’t as concerned with competing with other YA franchises might have made for a more engaging story, but such is the necessity in bringing such a property to life in the current moviemaking landscape.  To take a note from the story itself, would it be better to not have The Giver at all than to end up with such a mixed bag?  I’d like to think the value of Bridges’ performance and the central relationship is worth the tradeoff of the more disappointing aspects of the film.  By a hair.

• Alexander Skarsgard
• Meryl Streep

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Metacritic reviews

• 75 Washington Post Ann Hornaday Washington Post Ann Hornaday In its own way, the movie version — handsomely directed by Phillip Noyce and featuring an appealing, sure-footed cast of emerging and veteran actors — aptly reflects The Giver’s pride of place as the one that started it all, or at least the latest wave.
• 67 IndieWire IndieWire In spite of grand, world-building special effects and a stellar cast, the film falters under giant leaps of faith that land it just outside of the typical audience's threshold of suspension of disbelief.
• 67 Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten The film begins to get a bit lost as the story develops and pushes toward a wobbly climax and conclusion. And what to make of that sled, which is the first bit of knowledge Jonas receives. Rosebud, anyone?
• 63 New York Post Sara Stewart New York Post Sara Stewart The Giver is at its best when Bridges expounds on civilization’s lost beauty and savagery; at other times, it’s strewn with implausibility: For a totalitarian society in which everyone is monitored constantly, our hero is able to sneak around an awful lot.
• 63 McClatchy-Tribune News Service Roger Moore McClatchy-Tribune News Service Roger Moore While The Giver scores points for being smarter and deeper than “The Hunger Games” or its inferior photo-copy (“Divergent”), coming after all those other versions of this plot does neither it, nor us, any favors. The Giver has nothing new to offer.
• 60 The Hollywood Reporter John DeFore The Hollywood Reporter John DeFore A lazy ending mars this fine, if generic, take on a much-loved YA novel.
• 58 The A.V. Club A.A. Dowd The A.V. Club A.A. Dowd The ironic side effect is that this major influence on today’s new class of dystopian YA smashes now looks like just another greedy knockoff on-screen—a monochromatic "Divergent," or something similar.
• 50 Variety Scott Foundas Variety Scott Foundas The Giver reaches the screen in a version that captures the essence of Lowry’s affecting allegory but little of its mythic pull.
• 50 TheWrap Inkoo Kang TheWrap Inkoo Kang The Giver is an anti-totalitarian allegory so farcically hyperbolic it feels like only a teenager could have come up with it.
• 20 The Dissolve Tasha Robinson The Dissolve Tasha Robinson Mostly the problem is that every aspect of The Giver feels both painfully familiar and like an awkward, unsupportable stretch. For a film about the deep, hidden dangers of enforced sameness, that’s almost hilariously ironic.
• See all 33 reviews on Metacritic.com
• See all external reviews for The Giver

More from this title

More to explore, recently viewed.

The Giver Review

Give, and you shall receive..

As one in a long line of YA adaptations, The Giver may test some viewers' patience, but director Phillip Noyce brings his own unique visual style to the proceedings, adding a bit of flair to the story's well-worn structure and superficial themes. In addition, Jeff Bridges excels in the title role, but his young co-star Brenton Thwaites isn't quite as convincing as Jonas. In the end, the movie offers a brisk, diverting story, albeit a familiar one. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Max Nicholson is a writer for IGN, and he desperately seeks your approval. Show him some love by following @Max_Nicholson on Twitter, or MaxNicholson on IGN.

In This Article

Where to Watch

More Reviews by Max Nicholson

Ign recommends.

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

The film version of The Giver , based on Lois Lowry’s Newberry Medal-winning 1993 novel, moves at the speed of syrup. Make that the speed of syrup from a clogged spout. That’s no way to carry a philosophical message to young adults. But what is? The current onslaught of movies excreted from dystopian teen fiction would make any YA yak. So far, The Hunger Games franchise is working. But catch Divergent, The Host, Ender’s Game , and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and see if you don’t hear yourself scream: Make. It. Stop.

Still, I harbored a faint hope for The Giver because Lowry’s novel pretty much got there first and it wasn’t half bad. She wrote of a futuristic society that terminated pain, starvation, suffering and war by stifling emotion and making everyone and everything worship as the altar of Sameness. Sounds like Hollywood Philosophy 101 in the here and now.

Yet The Giver comes to the screen radiating earnestness. Aussie director Phillip Noyce ( Dead Calm, Rabbit-Proof Fence, The Quiet American ) is far from a hack. Even his paycheck films ( Clear and Present Danger, Salt ) show little patience for bullshit.

The Giver is also a passion project for its Oscar-winning star Jeff Bridges, who optioned the rights in 1995 to star his father, Lloyd, who died three years later. Now the reliably soulful Bridges, 64, takes the title role of the crusty old guy who gets to hold memories of the past in all their beauty and terror. Meryl Streep, in a very scary wig, show up as the Chief Elder, a villain who gets rid of anything old or in the way and makes sure that what The Giver knows won’t leak out. Except, of course, to his replacement. That would be Jonas, a child of the new society (raised by parent figures played by Katie Holmes and Alexander Skarsgård) who is ready to take whatever assignment he’s, um, given. It’s a humdinger. Jonas’s burden is to be The Receiver of the Giver’s knowledge.

Kris Kristofferson, Songwriter Whose Poetic Lyrics Transcended Genre, Dead at 88

'snl' cold open: kamala dances while trump longs for old biden, ‘the ellen show’ staffers say ellen degeneres’ new netflix special ‘missed the mark’, trump suggests giving cops 'one really violent day' to stop crime.

Let’s stop here a second. In the novel, Jonas was 11 years old. Onscreen, he’s played by Brenton Thwaites, 24. The givers in Hollywood know that the leads in movies need to be swoon worthy. So his friends, Fiona (Odeya Rush) and Asher (Cameron Monaghan), are now played by actors past jailbait age. Whew! Pop star Taylor Swift, 24, has a cameo as a pre-Jonas Receiver who didn’t work out. What? I’ll never tell.

As Jonas receives memories of color, art, music, literature, fashion, fun and sex, the film’s palette replaces dull gray with rainbow oomph. I’m not kidding. The Giver is obvious like that, also dull and remote. The biggest culprit is the script by Michael Mitnick and Robert B. Weide, who are clearly Receivers of every cliché in the Hollywood book. Lowry took chances with her novel. The movie of The Giver takes none. It’s safe, sorry and a crashing bore.

Inside That Shocking ‘Industry’ Season Three Finale

• jaw-dropper
• By Louis Staples

John Ashton, 'Beverly Hills Cop' Actor, Dead at 76

• By Daniel Kreps

'SNL': Mark Robinson Fails Miserably Playing The $100,000 Pyramid

• 'Black Nazi'
• By William Vaillancourt

'SNL' Weekend Update Tackles Trump Assassination Attempt, P Diddy & Eric Adams Indictments

• 'Lashing Out'

'SNL' Cold Open: Kamala Dances While Trump Longs For Old Biden

• 'Fun Aunt Is Back'

Most Popular

Will ferrell: 'if the trans community is a threat to you, then it stems from not being confident or safe with yourself', al b. sure calls for an investigation into death of diddy’s ex kim porter , archaeologists solve mystery behind black tombstone found in jamestown carrying an english knight, suge knight claims jay-z, dr. dre, and other industry people were privy to diddy's alleged criminal activity, you might also like, kris kristofferson, country music legend and ‘a star is born’ leading man, dies at 88, princess theodora of greece’s wedding dress details, historic tiara, american husband matthew kumar, royal guests and more, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors, ‘the summit’ showrunner on ‘devastating’ first episode departure, more payroll, more fans but playoffs in doubt for d-backs.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Screen Rant

The giver's ending explained.

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Robert Pattinson’s Remake Of 1981 Cult Horror Movie Gets Promising Development Update From Director: “Completely Bonkers Movie”

Killer heat review: prime video's noir crime drama breathes new life into genre with style & grit, pulp fiction's original ending was more violent, samuel l. jackson shares details about quentin tarantino's initial script.

Here's the ending to 2014 YA adaptation The Giver explained. Based on the 1993 Lois Lowry novel,  The Giver takes place after a war called "The Ruin," and is set in a community where the emotions of citizens - including love and desire - are suppressed. This is to maintain order but a Receiver of Memory is appointed to hold all the memories of the past to shield everyone else from it. The hero of the story is Jonas (Brenton Thwaites, Titans ), who is selected as the next Receiver, but as he progressively receives memories from his predecessor, he struggles with feeling true love and sorrow for the first time. He also discovers dark truths about how his community is run.

The Giver was one of many dystopian YA adaptations that followed in the wake of The Hunger Games . Other notable offerings include The Maze Runner series and The 5th Wave . Jeff Bridges - who plays The Giver - had wanted to turn the novel into a movie for years, and once wanted his father Lloyd to play the title role. The Giver certainly amassed an impressive cast, which includes Bridges, Alexander Skarsgård and Meryl Streep, but was greeted with a mixed response from critics and at the box-office.

Related: Taylor Swift's Character In The Giver Explained

The Giver sees Jonas selected to become the Receiver of Memory by the Chief Elder (Streep), while his friends Fiona (Odeya Rush) is selected for the Nurturing Center while Asher (Cameron Monaghan, Gotham ) becomes a drone pilot. Through his training Jonas starts to see color for the first time and learns The Giver's daughter Rosemary (Taylor Swift) was previously selected as the Receiver of Memory but decided to take her own life after being overwhelmed by the emotions it produced. Jonas later encourages Fiona to stop taking her emotion suppressing injections and the two kiss.

A turning point in  The Giver  sees Jonas learn that Gabe, a baby his family is looking after, is to be "released" - AKA killed - so he takes the baby and escapes into the Elsewhere. Asher is ordered by the Chief Elder to track Jonas on a drone, but he later lets them go when his friend tells him the secrets the Elders are keeping from everyone. Fiona is sentenced to be "released" for helping Jonas and Gabe escape, while Jonas' father (Skarsgård) is tasked with carrying this out. The Giver himself makes a plea to the Elders to let the community start feeling and be human again, but this notion is rejected.

The Giver  ends with Jonas and Gabe traveling beyond Elsewhere's border, which has the effect of restoring everyone's memories. The rush of emotions take over the community and saves Fiona's life. The final scene sees Jonas giving voice over as he and Gabe are about to enter a house he previously saw in The Giver's memories.

Next: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Movies Wasted Jena Malone's Johanna

• SR Originals

THE MOVIE CULTURE

The Giver Review: An Unusual Sci-Fi Movie

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 Film Cast

• Jeff Bridges as The Giver
• Brenton Thwaites as Jonas
• Odeya Rush as Fiona
• Alexander and James Jillings as Gabriel
• Katie Holmes as Jonas’ mother
• Meryl Streep as The Chief Elder
• Alexander Skarsgård as Jonas’ father
• Cameron Monaghan as Asher
• Taylor Swift as Rosemary
• Emma Tremblay as Lily
• Thabo Rametsi as Robbie

The Giver Movie Plot

Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) lives in a seemingly idyllic world of conformity and contentment. When he begins to spend time with The Giver (Jeff Bridges), an old man who is the sole keeper of the community’s memories, Jonas discovers the dangerous truths of his community’s secret past.

Armed with the power of knowledge, Jonas realizes that he must escape from their world to protect himself and those he loves – a challenge no one has ever completed successfully.

The Giver Movie Review

This film is based on the 1993 young adult novel of the same name by Lois Lowry. This film doesn’t really completely according to the book , the book is better than the film but if you haven’t read the book then well you’ll love this film. The plot of the film goes something like this, Following a calamity referred to as The Ruin, society has been reorganized.

Conflict, pain, and suffering have been mostly removed from human experience. However, 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, to shield the rest of the community from pain. The Receiver of Memory and their protégé are the only people able to see in color, which is otherwise eliminated from the community to prevent envy. The community is ruled by elders, including the Chief Elder. 

Jonas is an 18-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 the past and about joy, pain, death, and love. He stops taking his daily injections( which stops him from dreaming and thinking about Fiona who he has feelings for) and begins to experience emotion.

Those who leave the community are said to have been “released to Elsewhere,” but Jonas learns that to be a euphemism for euthanasia 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 that she received that she asked to be “released.”

Jonas learned the memories received from the Giver and accidentally shares his memories with a baby, Gabriel, who was brought home by his father. He develops a close relationship with Gabriel after he discovers that they share a birthmark, the mark of a potential Receiver of Memory, and both can see in color.

Appalled by the deception of his community and 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 to “Elsewhere.” Doing so would release memories and color back into the community.

When Jonas tries to leave his neighborhood, he encounters Asher, who tries to stop Jonas but is punched by Jonas. Jonas retrieves Gabriel, who is to be “released” for having failed to meet developmental marker, at the Nurturing Center.

Meanwhile, Jonas’s mother and Asher go to the Chief Elder to say that 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 to let them go. Instead, Asher captures them with the drone but sets them free by dropping them into a river. When he is 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 when they are left to their own devices, people make bad choices. Jonas and Gabriel enter a snowy area. 

Jonas falls to the ground and is overcome by the cold weather. However, he sees a sled like the one that he rode in a memory that he received from the Giver. Jonas and Gabriel ride the sled downhill and cross the border into Elsewhere, which frees their community.

That action saves Fiona’s life since Jonas’s father realizes what he is doing and stops short of “releasing” her. Jonas realizes that he has succeeded at his quest.

The Giver Film 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.

The Giver Film Critical Reception

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 [of the novel] gets lost in translation”.

The Movie Culture Synopsis

Jeff Bridges 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.

You will enjoy watching this film , we at TMC would give it a 7/10 even though it’s not completely based on the book. This film is available to watch on Netflix .

You may have missed

• TMC Exclusives
• TMC Originals

Yuta Okkotsu’s Domain Expansion Explained: Authentic Mutual Love – Jujutsu Kaisen Manga

Top 101 Movies of All Time: As per IMDb ratings

Why we all love the Kung Fu Panda Franchise

• Uncategorized

Leave the World Behind: Ending Explained

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

• About Rotten Tomatoes®
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening This Week
• Top Box Office
• Coming Soon to Theaters
• Certified Fresh Movies

Movies at Home

• Fandango at Home
• Prime Video
• Most Popular Streaming Movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• 98% The Wild Robot Link to The Wild Robot
• 100% Girls Will Be Girls Link to Girls Will Be Girls
• 100% Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story Link to Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story

New TV Tonight

• 88% The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon: Season 2
• -- Heartstopper: Season 3
• -- Gremlins: The Wild Batch: Season 2
• -- The Legend of Vox Machina: Season 3
• -- Chef's Table: Noodles: Season 1
• -- Joan: Season 1
• -- Love Is Blind: Season 7
• -- Dandadan: Season 1
• -- Scare Tactics: Season 1

Most Popular TV on RT

• 93% Nobody Wants This: Season 1
• 94% The Penguin: Season 1
• 83% Agatha All Along: Season 1
• 85% The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Season 2
• -- Doctor Odyssey: Season 1
• 64% The Perfect Couple: Season 1
• 75% Grotesquerie: Season 1
• 100% From: Season 3
• 46% Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story: Season 2
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV

Certified fresh pick

• 93% Nobody Wants This: Season 1 Link to Nobody Wants This: Season 1
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

All Stephen King TV Series and Miniseries Ranked

All 47 DreamWorks Animation Movies Ranked by Tomatometer

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Awards Tour

Renewed and Cancelled TV Shows 2024

Vote in the 1994 Movies Showdown – Round 2

• Trending on RT
• Hispanic Heritage Month
• TV Premiere Dates
• 1970s Horror
• Movie Re-Release Calendar

Critics Reviews

Cast & crew.

Jayro Bustamante

Giuliana Santa Cruz

Ángela Quevedo

Sabrina De La Hoz

Margarita Kénefic

María Telón