Rent The Giver (2014)

OK but left a lot of unanswered questions - The Giver review by DH

I had to read the full book synopsis online after seeing the movie and it filled in a few gaps which were problematic. Interestingly it states that this should be a story about an 11 year boy, the film depicts him as much older but they wanted a love story so I can see why they did that! This is basically a new take on Logans Run from the 70's. Don't know how the author got away with calling it a new piece of fiction, it wasn't. This isn't bad, it just didn't feel very new. Meryl Streep had more than a bit part and is always watchable. They crammed too much into 93 mins. If they put some more flesh on it by making it a normal 120 mins then it might have been a better movie. I shouldn't have had to read the book review to get the answers I needed about where the babies came from (sounds odd but you'll realise what I mean if you see the film) and why they couldn't keep them all. The book explains it.

Our main problem was not the film makers fault at all. They were talking about a society where they were being told what to do, told they couldn't touch, couldn't meet people, couldn't go out at night. They showed memories of better days when people were at large weddings, travelling the world and he looks with tears in his eyes. Well so did we! All the things we are currently being denied. Their sterile world felt very familiar to our world post Covid and it made it really sad so lost a bit of the magic. I wouldn't watch until these horrible times have passed! I'm sure it will land better in the future as it should show you stuff you take for granted except we don't at the moment.