Movie Review: The Giver is a solid dystopian fare like The Hunger Games and Divergent

HAVEN’T got the stomach for The Hunger Games? Not a fan of Divergent? Try The Giver, which is almost guaranteed to polarise audiences.

The Giver (M)

Three stars

Psssst! Haven’t got the stomach for The Hunger Games? Not sufficiently distracted by Divergent?

Then maybe The Giver will deliver the teen dystopia that’s right for you.

Lois Lowry’s 1993 novel of the same name was doing the young-upstarts-versus-old-rules thing more than a decade before it became the hottest genre in print and on screen.

Though this belated movie adaptation lacks the star sizzle and action-driven spectacle of a Hunger Games offering, The Giver still gets the job done in its own subtle, serious way.

Returning to the big screen ... Katie Holmes in The Giver. Picture: Roadshow Pictures

The story takes place in a rigorously-controlled mountaintop community which has survived some kind of global calamity known only as ‘The Ruin’.

On a daily basis, everyone willingly receives an antidepressant injection that wipes their memory of all pain and misery they have ever known.

Side-effects of the drug also appear to have suppressed all urges to either reproduce or rebel. Oh, and one more thing: the human eye no longer registers colour. Everything in this perfectly ordered world is just another shade of grey.

Keeps you thinknig ... The Giver. Picture: Roadshow Pictures

It is the job of one person alone to abstain from the compulsory medication to remember all of mankind’s past mistakes: The Giver (Jeff Bridges). As recently dictated by the Chief Elder (a subdued Meryl Streep), it is time for The Giver to retire.

Therefore he must transfer all classified memories to a younger replacement.

Looking for answers .. a scene from the movie The Giver. Picture: Roadshow Pictures

Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) is fresh out of school, and eager to listen. But can there be such as a thing as too much information? Jonas hears so much that he begins to see the world in colour for the very first time.

A film like The Giver is almost guaranteed to polarise audiences. Largely because it resists making any big statement, and is content to complete its thematic journey via a series of small and deliberate steps.

While it won’t be to everyone’s tastes, The Giver does offer a collection of moments that will keep some viewers thinking and reflecting for some time to come.

Originally published as Movie Review: The Giver is a solid dystopian fare like The Hunger Games and Divergent