The Giver

I'm pleasantly surprised that Hollywood chose to respect the source material instead of butchering it to the point where it's virtually unrecognizable as the same story. Jeff Bridges is the perfect choice to play The Giver! (In fact, when I read the book, I pictured him as Jeff Bridges. Apparently great minds think alike.) While it doesn't have nearly as much meat to the story as the book did it still gets the point of the story across. 1 hour and 30 minutes was a much shorter runtime than it should have been. They should have added at least another hour, and given more detail about the society in which the characters live. We're briefly given a list of their rules, but not enough detail as to how this society came to be. Some important parts were cut out of the movie or changed slightly, which is why you really must read the book first. However you can still understand most of it if you choose to see the movie before you read the book. While at times it does feel like it took inspiration from (read: stole) certain parts of the film adaptions of other YA novels such as "The Hunger Games" and "Divergent," keep in mind that the book of "The Giver" was written long before these other novels; it just took longer to make it. It's well worth the 20 year wait though, because this film adaptation is nearly perfect. It's probably the best book-to-film adaptation I've seen since the "Harry Potter" series. I'm hoping Jeff Bridges gets nominated for his role in this film, because he's absolutely phenomenal. And so is the film.
Grade: A-  9/10  4/5 stars