The Giver: Finally a YA Novel Adaptation I Can Get Behind

For some reason I missed out on The Giver by Lois Lowry.  It seems everyone read that book besides me.  I can remember younger grades reading it in high school so perhaps I missed the mark by a couple years.  The point is that I went into the film with clear eyes and very little idea of what the concept was besides the fact that it was another teen dystopian flick to throw on top of the pile.  2014 has been the year of the YA novel adaptation and The Giver directed by Phillip Noyce is a good way to round out such a year.  With less of a focus on romance, the film takes on larger, more existential questions in that the society in which protagonist Jonas lives is devoid of color and feeling.  In the year 2048, society has rebuilt itself after a devastating event which we know nothing about.  Now, human beings live high on a plateau where their self-sustaining society survives by eliminating all feelings like anger, jealously, and other negative actions and emotions as well as love, joy and hope.  In every sense of the word, their world is a utopia which basically survives on the idea that no one knows any different.  Everyone is equal and is assigned a job for life upon turning 18.  When young Jonas is left out of the selection process it is revealed that he has been chosen to be the new “Receiver”, the person charged with experiencing the past and history of the human race so that he may preserve it for future generations.  Jonas is sent to the edge of the community to work with the Giver, the old Receiver who is tasked with teaching Jonas about what it truly means to be human.  While certain things inspire Jonas like hope and love, others like war, violence, and fear confuse and frighten him.  As Jonas’ training progresses he starts to discover the lies underneath the surface of their picturesque society and seeks a way to change everything.  The Giver was a success in that it showcases what it means to be human.  Part of what makes us who we are is our ability to feel and though that sometimes leads to horrific outcomes, life just isn’t worth living without it.  In the end, love is the most important thing and once someone experiences that, there truly is no going back.  Managing to focus on love without getting too heavily into romance is difficult, especially in the YA genre and yet The Giver manages to draw a distinction between the two which I was overjoyed to see.  In this way the film was significantly better than other adaptations this year like The Mortal Instruments and Divergent whose plots center almost entirely on the young female protagonist’s new love interest.  Overall, I would recommend the film.  It’s a decent sci-fi story and has some great actors including Jeff Bridges as the Giver and Meryl Streep as the stone faced Chief Elder; definitely a good way to round out the years other dystopian flops.

Divergent - Another Poorly Done YA Novel Adaptation

Here we go again, another YA novel movie adaptation which tries to capitalize on the popularity of the Hunger Games but fails miserably.  This would be fine if it hadn't happened a bunch of times already (I’m looking at you Mortal Instruments).  Divergent capitalizes on the public’s current obsession with dystopian science fiction but fails to create a story which is either emotionally charged or particularly exciting 

                The story focuses on Beatrice, a citizen of the destroyed city of Chicago 100 years after the “end of the world”.  She lives in a society separated into five factions which are designed to keep people in line based on their personality traits.  Beatrice belongs to Abnegation which is the selfless class and the ruling government body.  However, at the age of 16 every member of society is allowed to choose which faction they wish to be a part of.  Once the decision is made, there is no going back.  Beatrice much decide between the safe decision of staying with her family or the hard decision of leaving them behind forever and joining the military faction Dauntless which she has always envied.  If she joins them and fails, she risks becoming faction-less and having to live on the streets with no food or shelter.              

                Before choosing, Beatrice is evaluated only to find out that she is a Divergent meaning she fits into not one but three categories.  Her evaluator hurries her out the door and tells her never to speak of this.  Divergents threaten the system which has kept this society in line for over a century and are thus eliminated.  When the time comes, Beatrice decides to join Dauntless and leaves her family behind to start her new life.  The trials are difficult but she manages to pick herself up after every fall and keep working at it, determined to succeed.  Eventually, Beatrice finds herself at the center of a plot to overthrow Abnegation by the intelligence faction Erudite.  Beatrice must work together with her Dauntless instructor Four to try and save her old faction. 

                The story has more holes in it than I know what to do with and was predictable from start to finish.  There are so many questions, which makes it difficult to take the concept seriously.  Why don’t the faction-less rise up and overthrow the others?  Why does no one have any desire to leave the city of Chicago?  Are there other settlements around the country or the world?  It’s been over 100 years since the end of civilization and no one has once thought about trying to contact other pockets of survivors?  Are we meant to believe that Chicago was the only place to survive?  And these are just the big questions!  Beatrice’s decision to leave her faction and join Dauntless is supposed to be emotional because she will never get to see her family again and yet she takes a Saturday stroll to see her brother in Erudite one afternoon as if it’s no big deal.  I could go on and on.  In the end, the issue is that humans are far more complex and free thinking than this system implies.  It just wouldn't hold up for the 100 years it has.  

                Now let me take a minute to confess that I haven’t read the books.  Many of these questions may be answered in subsequent sequels.  But the questions weren’t the only problem with the film.  The sub par romance between Beatrice and Four was predictable and completely unnecessary.  The films climax is over in 15 minutes and even that is far too long as a mind controlled Dauntless army stands ready to shoot every member of Abnegation awaiting only the Erudite leader’s final command.  But in typical Bond villain fashion, an exorbitant amount of time is wasted allowing Beatrice and Four to save the day.  

                Overall, the film felt hurried and poorly thought out.  When this genre is done correctly, it can make for an exciting film for all ages as in the case of movies like Enders Game or Percy Jackson and the Lightning Theif.  But Divergent was a prime example of a movie that left WAY too much to the imagination which for someone over the age of 18, was hard to overlook.  Unless you can relate to Beatrice on a personal level (i.e you’re a teenage girl who doesn't feel like she fits in, but can overcome any obstacle if she puts her mind to it) than the film just isn't for you.

The Monuments Men - Good Film, Not Quite Serious Enough

The Monuments Men was an exciting and comical adventure which was only loosely based on the popular novel of the same name.  Written and directed by George Clooney, the film has an all-star cast including Matt Damon, John Goodman, Bill Murray, Hugh Bonneville, and Cate Blanchett.  The story begins with Frank Stokes (Clooney) convincing the Allied generals that saving Europe’s classic works of art is vital.  He believes that an Allied victory will be meaningless if the great works of the Renaissance masters are lost forever, either damaged, destroyed, or stolen.  Stokes is allowed to assemble a team of experts, historians, and artists to try and infiltrate enemy territory and recover the missing masterpieces.  Working with a Parisian curator named Claire Simone (Blanchett), James Granger (played by Matt Damon) attempts to get information about the missing pieces which are hastily being brought to Germany under the leadership of Nazi officer Viktor Stahl ahead of the advancing Allied armies.  The information is relayed to Stokes and the other members of his team who have split up and are scattered all across Europe attempting to retrieve priceless works such as Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child.  With no military support, the story is uplifting as this hodgepodge group of underdog’s singlehandedly save the history of Western art from the destruction of World War II.   However, I felt that the tone set by the director was very reminiscent of Ocean’s 11, another Clooney/Damon collaboration.  The seriousness of the story was overshadowed by the comedic elements which I feel took away from the gravity of what the team was trying to accomplish.  While comedic relief was necessary, it seemed to go a little far making the movie feel more like a art heist comedy when I was expecting a war drama.  Still, the movie was entertaining and enjoyable to watch, especially when you consider that the events depicted actually took place.  In the end it was an interesting and untold chapter in the history of the Second World War which makes viewing the great works on display at museums like the Louvre all the more special.   

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is Straight Out of the Imagination

Ben Stiller is almost always hit or miss for me.  Sometimes he knocks it out of the park and other times his roles feel forced or too artificial.  That is not the case in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.  The film was spectacular and was laugh out loud funny with imaginative explosions that keep the viewer questioning reality.  Walter is someone all of us can relate to.  Literally everyone who has ever worked a boring 9-5 and yearned for more can relate to Walter’s bouts of severe daydreaming and his constant desire to live a more exciting and fulfilling life.  Ironically employed by LIFE magazine, Walter works in the dark basement photo department meticulously cutting, trimming, and organizing the magazines photos as their negative assets manager; a very important job which goes completely unnoticed by the corporate big wigs upstairs.  Walter constantly imagines himself in distant lands on crazy adventures or wooing the girl of his dreams (played by Kristin Wigg) by scaling frozen mountain peaks or saving the day from certain destruction.  And yet he is always brought back to reality by whoever notices Walter “zoning out” and staring off into space (which happens often).  His life takes an unexpected turn however when he receives a packet of photos from famed photojournalist Sean O’Connell who informs him that negative #25 captures the “quintessence” of life and should be used for the cover of the magazines upcoming final print issue.  The only problem is that #25 is missing and Walter knows that it will mean his job if he can’t locate it.  Walter assumes the only way to find the negative is to find Sean, his adventurous hero who he’s gotten to know purely through his letters and photos.  Walter uses clues from the other negatives and embarks on a journey to find Sean.  Along the way he ends up doing what he has always dreamed of, living life to its absolute fullest.  Breaking out of his comfort zone and taking risks for the first time ever Walter realizes that his dreams are not so out of reach and that life can truly be as magical and awe inspiring as he’s always imagined.  Everyone who watches this film will no doubt see some of themselves in Walter Mitty.  We can all relate to wanting more out of life and wishing we could take off to far corners of the world on crazy adventures.  What makes the movie so special is that Walter decides to just do it.  He pulls the proverbial trigger and makes us all believe that we can make our dreams come true.