The release of the first trailer of “The Giver” captures a glimpse of the upcoming film adaptation of one of everyone’s favorite novels growing up, “The Giver.” Starring Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep, the film tells the story of Jonas (Brendon Thwaites), an eleven–year old boy who lives in a utopian society where one ultimately has no freedom to determine his or her own future or identity. When Jonas is assigned the role of “The Receiver,” his eyes are opened to the suppression within his community and he attempts to fight back. The film will be released August 15, 2014.
What We Love: The cast! With this much talent packed into “The Giver,” we’re guaranteed at least an average adaptation. We barely catch a glimpse of Jeff Bridges’ face, yet just hearing his voice stirs our imagination and it’s easy to picture him as the Giver we imagined years ago. The movie also features Meryl Streep as the Chief Elder, Katie Holmes as Jonas’ mother, Alexander Skarsgard as Jonas’ father, Cameron Monaghan as Asher and Taylor Swift as Rosemary (okay, this last one will be interesting to see play out).
What We Don’t: As much as we’d love to see this story come to fruition, we always wonder how much a film will stay true to its original work. The trailer already begins to show a departure from a fundamental attribute of the story, since it takes place in color. The original story is told from Jonas’ point of view, yet we wonder whether the film will be able to portray the world through Jonas’ eyes as he receives memories of what used to be and how the rest of the community saw the world in the past.
