Stories about dystopian worlds aren’t new; everybody has been there, seen that. But The Giver puts a twist on the typical story, and was the inspiration for stories like The Hunger Games and Divergent. Originally written by Lois Lowry in 1993, The Giver is about a world where everything is the same and controlled. The characters in this story have no freedom to decide their future or have memory of the past. Their emotions are taken from them, and the citizens are contained within the Communities. Director Phillip Noyce took a book about a simple dystopian society and made it into a magnificent movie that described the necessity of human emotion, celebrating where we come from, and accepting our diversity.

Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) is the only person that can see bits of color in a movie that begins entirely in black and white. This sets him apart from his friends and makes him eligible to become the Receiver of Memory. In a society of Sameness, everyone has the same house, same bike, same clothes, same life, and any differences are frowned upon. Jonas discovers that being the Receiver is a unique job with unique training. As Jonas continues his training, the movie transitions from black and white into full color.

Jonas is trained by the Giver (Jeff Bridges), who is theonly member in the society that retains the memories of the world before him. He begins to share these memories with Jonas, introducing him to things that they do not have in their society of Sameness, things like pain and love, family and war. Jonas tries to share these memories with his sister Lily and his friend Fiona (Odeya Rush), but they have trouble understanding. Jonas starts to see the problems with the way they live and wants to escape. The Giver helps him come up with a plan to run away and to release the memories back to the people.

This movie was surprisingly good, even though the story strayed a little from the plotline; it resolved the cliffhanger which with Lowry ended the book. The movie brought to life the memories that Jonas experiences and made it  the viewers feel like they were right there with him, seeing the real world for the first time. The differences from the book benefitted the movie and made it more enjoyable. The Giver is a must-see for anyone who has read the book or enjoys a good dystopian society movie.