Two nights in a row, a movie started with a lot of promise and really fizzled out before the end. The Giver is based on a popular young-adult book, which I haven’t ready but I know is supposed to be very good. The movie however was a bit of a mess. It started well, though a little familiar, with a typical dystopian future society where emotions are subdued to keep the populace in check. In fact, all memories of the past (before the current regime) have been erased, with only a single person charged with all previous knowledge so he can act as an adviser to the government. This person, known as the Receiver of Memories (and played by Jeff Bridges) is the only person who knows what war, famine, and crime are, but is also the only person aware of love and joy. Every generation the Receiver passes his knowledge onto the next person, and so on.
The new Receiver is picked, a young man named Jonas, and as his eyes are opened to all that society is missing, he refuses to not pass this along to his friends and family. If it sounds like a great premise, it really is, but the film loses steam by the end. What seems like a central plot element is never fully explained, including the importance of a baby that Jonas refuses to let go. The movie does make want to read the book, because it has to be better that this jumbled puzzle.
Jons Movie Takes 