The book The Giver by Lois Lowry was recently made into a film starring Brenton Thwaites (as Jonas) and Odeya Rush (as Fiona). Because I read  the book in middle school, I was excited to see the film. The movie is a cross between the book and an action packed Star Wars type film. The movie is good but it’s different than the book I remember.

The “children’s” book has been turned into a typical dystopian type teen movie. It has a lot more violence, romance, and special effects. It is a movie like Divergent, The Hunger Games, and Maze Runner. I still thought it was really great, just different than the book.

I don’t think many people have read the book outside of school. The 1993 novel is also categorized as a children’s book. But the movie trailer made it seem more action packed and full of romance.

The Giver is about a boy named Jonas  who is different from anyone else in the community. He has special traits that qualify him for the rare job of memory keeper; therefore, he is one of two who know about the past. His community was created to make everyone equal to make life easier. There are no colors or feelings in order to keep everyone happy and there’s not a rebel against the community. Jonas gets the memories and starts thinking, why aren’t these feelings, these things allowed in their world?

Jonas tries to get someone else to feel how he does, full of ideas, full of feeling. That person, Fiona, doesn’t understand why Jonas is feeling this way but supports his wild ideas. Jonas figures out, with The Giver’s help, that there is a barrier in The Unknown (the unexplored place surrounding the community) that will set memories free for everyone.

As if escape wasn’t hard enough, he decides to save a newborn baby.

Fiona (Jonas’ best friend and love interest), was added into more scenes of the movie. In the book, she was just a friend. For a brief section of the book,  Jonas felt like he liked her, but that was stopped by emotion-numbing medication. The love story in the movie was exciting and made for all the more reason to save the community.

I liked  the ceremony of the ages,  when everyone is assigned a vocation, and the Chief Elder skips over Jonas until the end of the ceremony. The community members thought that the leaders made a mistake, which was shocking because everything has to be perfect for them.

I really liked reading about the memories that Jonas got from The Giver. I thought it was even better seeing them on screen. They were so cool and it was really dramatic.  Fore someone who likes American history, these images are iconic.

The novel ends with a lot of questions, but I liked the way that the movie portrayed an actual barrier that was made to be broken.  The movie did have a very similar cliffhanger as the book.  I feel the ending was very satisfying because I could imagine what happens to Jonas and the baby.

In an interview with Slate Magazine, Lowry described some of her opinions of the movie.

If you like The Giver you should definitely see the movie because it is a good interpretation of what happens in the book. Big fans of the book might not think its as good as the book, though. This is because the ending didn’t stay true to the book. There was a lot of extra fighting and action than the original ending. But overall it was a good transition from book to movie, a little different but a good new look for the story.