Weinstein

PG 13. 97 mon

You may want to just assume there's a spoiler alert for every 1 of my reviews.

You will always be better off finding things out for yourself then you can look back and decide whether or not you agree.

As a matter of fact it often bothers me to have too much information in the trailers.

What I gathered from the promotions is that THE GIVER falls into one of three basic futuristic dystopia

genres.

First 1984 wherein the government has crushed the will of the people and everyone lives in a bleak and oppressive dictatorship.

Second the MAX MAX world of post apocalyptic chaos.

Third, and the one that THE GIVER falls into, the one of the government controlled BRAVE NEW WORLD; no hunger no war no disease but dammit mankind needs to suffer to progress!

In most of the situations mankind, us actually, have screwed things up with a disregard for the environment and the old standby, man's inhumanity to man.

In this particular Shangri La the citizens are all designated at birth to fill different societal needs through a careful and scientific assessment of everyone's best traits and abilities.

Each well balanced and perfectly placed individual is also given a daily dose of drugs. No not like when we were in college but in order to suppress and eliminate emotion. You see here love, anger, jealousy and the like cannot interfere with the harmonious interaction the government demands.

So far the idea isn't ridiculous but just wait.

Apparently one of the side effects of this drug induced paradise is the idea that, well, there are no ideas. No one remembers anger hunger sickness but neither do they remember joy music love and happiness.

Still not ridiculous you say? Here goes...

At the very edge of the civilized mesa which makes up the community is a giant library which serves as home to the communities most important elder, the keeper of the memories or Giver. That's right folks, one guy and only one guy has the entire history and emotional makeup of the universe in his memory.

Since the incumbent Giver (Jeff Bridges) is getting a little long in the tooth the cities chief elder (Meryl Streep) has been trying to find an individual with the right properties so this information could be transferred to a new and younger giver.

Jonas (Brantonon Thwaites ) appears to be just perfect a one in a million specimen with the psychic ability to receive the world's wisdom. Of course there's a problem.

Jonas has a free will streak and bucks the system by avoiding his daily anti emotion injections.

So even though it is impossible to not guess the final outcome you will be astounded at how completely silly the final catharsis is set up.

I won't blow the ending for you but the plot, as silly as it may be, isn't really what bothered me about THE GIVER.

The film actually does have a very good look and I've heard that the book was actually edgy and gripping. Sure it comes on the heels of quite a few Kids Against the Machine type of movies but Hollywood loves to imitate successful films.

I think the best way to describe this film is bland. There's not much excitement there's not much emotion and you never really build up any empathy for the hero's nor hatred of the villains.

I was personally dumbfounded by the lack of quality acting given the fact that two of the three main characters are Streep and Bridges, a couple of the best in the business.

Sporting no makeup and hairstyle one might find at a Barberton area Walmart, Streep reads her lines as if it's the first time she's seen them.

Bridges, with a beard that looks like an opossum has been strapped to his chin delivers his lines in a John Huston monotone growl. The kids are just, well, kids performing on the level of, say, extras in a Freddy Krueger movie.

I can't imagine the book being a phenomenon if it's no more interesting than this film.

A big disappointment.

C

WSS