From Book to Screen: “The Giver”

Naomi Laeuchli

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Naomi Laeuchli has lived overseas in nine different countries on three different continents where her family was posted with the American Foreign Service. In November 2012 she moved from the Democratic Republic of the Congo back to the states and currently lives in Arizona. She loves board games, video games, comics, reading and film. Naomi works as a freelance writer and has self-published the novel Holly(Woods), a mystery, romance, drama set in Los Angeles.

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3 Responses

  1. (Some spoilers ahead here.) I watched the movie and reread the book pretty close together, and the biggest thing that didn’t work at all for me was the movie’s expanded POV. The book is very clearly told through Jonas’ eyes, and while the movie does this most of the way through, their few attempts to show the community and those in charge didn’t work for me at all, most strongly at the very end. Jonas’ escape has high stakes in and of itself. There’s no reason to shoehorn in an “if he doesn’t get there in time, someone’s going to DIE!” problem — not to mention that everything seen at the compound in those scenes hugely dramatic compared to what we’d seen thus far. It took what was a genuinely tense final act and turned it into something more soap opera than anything.

    I was so hoping the movie was going to be good, but thanks to this and Ella Enchanted, we’re now 0 for 2 on good movie adaptations of my favorite books in high school :-)

    • I agree, I didn’t need the final ‘Jonas has to get there in time to save Fiona’ aspect of the finale either. I did really like the actors for the parents, the Chief Elder and The Giver so I enjoyed those scenes more than I could have but ultimately, I missed the most focused final act that the book has.

      Of course, I actually only just recently read the book for the first time about a month ago, so it doesn’t have the nostalgia for me that could have made me more frustrated at the changes, and so ultimately I ended up rather enjoying the movie.

      But ah, Ella Enchanted…..that movie….*shakes head*….how could they have gone so wrong?

  2. Levi Miller says:

    Meh, the ending was changed too much imo