In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I'm not sure if the written tale with its wonderful detail and engaging, thought-provoking story can ever properly translate to the movie screen. I loved the books and wanted to like the movie, but it sorely missed the mark. If I'd not read the books beforehand, based on this adaptation I probably would not be tempted to read them.Give the books a chance, all 4 of them: The Giver, Gathering Blue, The Messenger, and Son. Skip the movie, at least until after reading the quartet. They give the memorable saga a sense of completion that this movie does not.

I watched this on Netflix, and was a bit unsure after reading some newspaper reviews from movie critics. I think this movie has been judged too harshly. I did not have any problem understanding the "how" human society got there. How it was possible to consider so much of the joys we take in life as something to be sacrificed for the opportunity not to suffer the pain we have. I did not have a problem to imagine a society orderly organizing the lives of every single member of the community. Some feature of the organization attained by the movie's society are old ideas really, out of some philosopher's dreams (or out of everybody else's nightmare): Plato's Republic came to my mind, during some parts of the movie, except that the society in the movies arrives to strikingly similar results from following objectives which are way different (getting rid of pain was not Plato's objective in an ideal organization of society). I liked the acting, especially in the character of the Giver, Fiona and Jonas. I think the use of black and white was interesting. What almost managed to ruin the whole movie was the rushed ending. It could have been much better: but as it is, it just looks like the money to keep filming suddenly finished up and they had to look for a quick way to end the movie. In any case it's still a 7.

The film's use of black and white to color was great, but I would have chosen a real redhead to play the love interest. Her hair was too dark to show the glaring contrast of seeing color for first time. Another complaint is the memories they used. I would have used World War II instead of Vietnam. Having the main character live through the memories of someone storming the beaches of Normandy.

So, I had to watch this movie because of a school project after reading the book and have to say, I was amazed at the awfulness. The effects weren't ... that bad, I have to admit. My biggest complaints are the script and the actors. The book is kinda strange but it has a few very important emotional scenes that were either skipped completely or that were delivered so badly I wanted to chuck my phone at the screen. Okay, you may say that the people in this movie are supposed to have no real emotions and that's fine! But if you deliver these 'emotional' scenes without ever showing a reaction from the one guy having emotions (Thwaites) then that's just idiotic. The movie was chaotic, sometimes we all just sat there and frowned at the screen. There were a few 'twists' in the movie that were painfully obvious even if they didn't happen in the book. The few good (experienced) actors that were in this thing were apparently determined to deliver their worst performance yet. The main characters' (Thwaites and the love-interest) acting was so painful I could barely stand to watch it. Thwaites always had this look of vague awe on his face even if it didn't fit. The love-interest's actress was one of those actresses where they are completely unremarkable. One thing however stood out. Their laughter sounded so fake it hurt!Another major problem I have with this movie is 'the Giver'. Somehow, every scene with him and Thwaites has this sexual vibe going on which is really sickening if you consider the fact Thwaites' supposed to be sixteen in this and 'the Giver's about sixty. It really creeped us all out. In conclusion (because I have to cut this short) it's awful. Don't watch it.