MOVIE - The Giver

PG-13 (1:40)
Wide Release 8/15/14
Viewed at El Con with Sheila 8/17/14
RT Critic: 32   Audience: 68
cag: 4.5/Liked it a whole lot
Directed by Philip Noyce
The Weinstein Company]
from the book by Lois Lowry

Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Brenton Thwaites, Alexander Skarsgard

My thoughts:  If you're the kind of person that gets upset because there are a lot of changes from the book, you're probably going to be a bit disappointed in this movie.  There were definitely changes, but they all worked.  In the previews I couldn't help be sneer a little because it seems that they had added some sort of love interest for Jonas.  Considering the direction they took with the ending, it all worked perfectly.  Good movie.  Excellent, actually.  And I love the different actors that played the different parts.  The only questions I have, the only problem with it as I left the theater, was that the Meryl Streep character also seemed to have all the memories.  My problem was not that she had them, that no reference had been made to this fact.
          When the movie was over, a young couple sitting behind us made the comment that it was a little slow in places.  There was no slowness for me.  Granted, I've read the book seven or eight times at least so it was interesting to see all the wonderful changes and additions.  The story is certainly no supposed to be action-filled.  It is nothing like Hunger Games or Divergent.  The giver is the predecessor to all the current dystopian stories.  And I love and admire it as such.
          I've heard that Lois Lowry is quite satisfied with the end product.  If she is, so am I!

RT Summary:  The haunting story of THE GIVER centers on Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), a young man who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Yet as he begins to spend time with The Giver (Jeff Bridges), who is the sole keeper of all the community's memories, Jonas quickly begins to discover the dark and deadly truths of his community's secret past. With this newfound power of knowledge, he realizes that the stakes are higher than imagined - a matter of life and death for himself and those he loves most. At extreme odds, Jonas knows that he must escape their world to protect them all - a challenge that no one has ever succeeded at before. THE GIVER is based on Lois Lowry's beloved young adult novel of the same name, which was the winner the 1994 Newbery Medal and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. 

49. The Birthday Ball - Lois Lowry

Illustrated by Jules Feiffer
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2010
HC $16.00
186 pages
for: Middle grades
Lexile: 870L
Ages 8-12
Rating: 4

This is a very cute fairy tale, written craftily with all sorts of word play and a great deal of alliteration.

Princess Patricia Priscilla is worried about her 16th birthday the next week when she'll have to chose a husband, one of three horrid choices. Counts who are conjoined twins who argue incessantly, a fat, ugly, rotten-toothed Duke who spits whenever he speaks, and an oily-haired narcisist whose dandruff is dusted away by men hired for only that job. And she's bored. So she decides to spend the next week as just plain "Pat," sneaking out of the castle to attend the local school incognito. There she meets the school teacher, a kind young man, and befriends all the village children.

It's a typical story told in a descriptive, jolly way, leaving us all, naturally, cheering in the end when all it's wrapped up tightly and well. A quick, fun read.

I've never been particularly fond of Jules Feiffer's illustrations, and I didn't like them in this book. They don't help the picture in my mind at all, they make it much more comical than the imaginative reality that I like.

Crow Call - Lois Lowry

Illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline

Scholastic, 2009

$16.99

32 pgs.

Rating: 5 YES!

Endpapers: Deep brown, accentuating the beautiful browns used in the illustrations.

This is a supremely lovely book. The words themselves are gorgeous. The illustrations are magnificent. And the story iteslf is oh-so-satisfying. It's a memoir, a story of Lois Lowry and her own father in 1945.

Just back from the war, a father begins the first steps of reconnecting with his young daughter by taking her hunting, just the two of them. Breakfast at a diner starts the day with a funny situation that I'm certain became an inside family joke. The woods are quiet and beautiful, and they talk. Lizzie is nervous about her father's rifle, and fearful for the crows he will shoot. He gives her the task of blowing the crow call. This becomes such a delight to her when dozens of silent crows rise from the trees in answer to her call.

This is first and foremost the story of a thoughtful, sensitive father who dearly loves his child. Wrapped in magical words and detailed illustrations, this is a lush, special book. BRAVO!!

"Grass, frozen after its summer softness, crunches under our feet; free from the floating pollens of summer, and our words seem etched and breakable on the brittle stillness."

Never stop writing, Mrs. Lowry, never stop!