The film adaption of Lois Lowry’s beloved 1993 young adult classic “The Giver” opens in theaters Friday. Before you watch the dystopian film on the big screen, check out these reviews — just so you know what you’re getting yourself into …
Ashley Dobson, Red Alert Politics: “While the movie serves as a good example for a number of conservative political values – pro-life support, pro-marriage, anti-nanny state – I thought it was especially applicable for millennials. We are the most studied age group in history, and the one finding that crops up over and over again is our need for choice and customization in almost all areas of life. It’s this spirit from our generation that makes the extreme world in ‘The Giver’ even more unbelievable. … ‘The Giver’ shows a picture of all that is lost when you give up or are forced to give up the freedom to choose. But more strongly than any group before us, we believe in the benefits of personal choice. And our generation gives me hope that the community in ‘The Giver’ is nothing more than a work of fiction, certainly not a grim look into the future.”
Sara Stewart, The New York Post: “‘The Giver,’ adapted from the award-winning 1993 novel by Lois Lowry, is something different, slower and more old-school — a kindly grandfather to (other) YA sagas. Not an insult. Who among us is hungering for another ‘Hunger Games,’ anyway? … But the central premise — that wildness of spirit isn’t something to be tamed, no matter how messy it makes our lives — is an enduring one.”
Jack Fowler,National Review Online: ” ‘The Giver’ is the kind of movie that conservatives — those who are yearning for a greater role and voice in the entertainment industry, so that our beliefs can have a greater impact and validation in the culture — should be cheering.”
Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post: “… [Y]oung people have once again been given their generation’s version of a message that, although not necessarily new, nevertheless may feel urgent and uniquely timely to its core audience. ‘The Giver’ has been made with deep respect for that experience, and for the book that so powerfully predicted the grim universe movie teenagers now inhabit — for worse and, in this case, for better as well.”
Rebecca Cusey, The Federalist: “‘The Giver’ is concerned less with the how—the specifics of (the movie’s hero) Jonas’s rebellion—than the why. And the why is where it soars. In beautiful flashes of image and emotion, we feel, rather than are told, the why. The thrill of danger on a sled ride. The smile on a bride’s face. The pride on a father’s. The agony of losing a friend. The heroism of a man standing alone in front of a line of tanks. Without freedom to do wrong, there can be no right. Without the ability to choose evil, the option of choosing good is negated. Coerced goodness is not goodness at all, but something else entirely. These are not mere platitudes. They lay at the very heart of the American experiment of liberty.”
