★★★★☆

How can anyone not like a movie which has both Meryl Streep and The Dude (Jeff Bridges) in it? If you are a writer of dystopian fiction or social experimentation this is an all you can eat buffet of ideas.

A multi-generational socially engineered society with automated drones making sure people obey all of the rules, such as no touching non-family members, and a host of other things. There is a chooser group which chooses your occupation for you based on having monitored you for your entire life. Then there is this crazy old dude called The Giver who was mandated to guide the experimentation.

The Giver – The Guide

Guide might be too much. The ruling council seeks the advice of The Giver when making cultural decisions because only The Giver has the knowledge of the world which was, or so everyone in this society believes. Only The Giver knows the entire world still exists and that they are in a giant artificially created city. I know that sounds like a poor description, but it is the best I can give.

The Giver is supposed to have a junior person they impart all of their knowledge to in order to protect against their unexpected death. Sadly, not everyone in this society can handle the knowledge of music, love, or emotion. Most of the citizens working in the maternity portion of the society either don’t realize or choose not to realize the injection they give the babies which don’t measure up actually kills them. They honestly believe or choose to believe the child is going to sleep and off to another part of the city.

Ah, the best laid plans go horribly wrong. To say more would be to take away the gift of this movie.

Put this DVD in and let your mind wander.

For more movie rental ideas please see list one and list two.