CAN YOU TAKE THE GIVER?
In Pleasantville (1998), the supposedly serene but dull 1950s are viewed from the perspective of the liberated 1990s. Based on the novel by Lois Lowry, The Giver presents an image of a more serene future beyond the turbulent present. Something catastrophic has happened in the past, and the new beginning is a community isolated from the rest of the world in which there is a strict morality and equality such that civility reigns and there are no differences to provide a basis for conflict. The elders, led by the Chief Elder (played by Meryl Streep), enforce the morality by imposing surveillance and liquidating those who misbehave. All are required to take an antidepressant drug daily, which removes emotions and the ability to think outside the box. When children are born, they are assigned to Nurturers, and later assigned to adoptive families—but not to birthfamilies. No abortion is allowed, and infanticide is the solution for a baby lacking serenity. After children complete their schooling, the elders determine what their occupations will be upon graduation, and the children accept their assignments because “the elders are always right.” But there is one person who appears to have special intelligence—Jonas (played by Brenton Thwaites). He is assigned the role Receiver of Memory and must study with The Giver (Jeff Bridges) during the day while continuing to fraternize with his girlfriend Fiona (Odeya Rush) and living with his assigned parents (Alexander Skarsgård and Katie Holmes) and sister (Emma Tremblay). The Giver puts Jonas into trances to experience different climates, races, religions, as well as biodiversity, sexuality and human conflict. But Jonas stops taking the tranquilizer and begins to encounter emotions, even love, a word that has been banned because emotions cause conflict. Director Philip Noyce has thus made a kind of Pleasantville II in which the black-and-white world is gradually transformed into full color, though just how that is possible seems unclear, given the premises laid in the story. But why does Noyce, who won a Political Film Society award as director of The Quiet American (2002), popularize the Tea Party view that government is to be distrusted, especially when overregulating, thereby earning the praise of Sarah Pailin? MH
LOVE IS STRANGE IS A STRANGE WAY TO CELEBRATE LOVE
When the film begins, artist Ben (played by John Lithgow) and musician George (Alfred Molina) are married in New York City after living together for 39 years. Ben is retired, living on a modest pension. However, George is fired from his position of music teacher at a Catholic school because the local Bishop believes that he has violated his work contract by consummating marriage with a man. But rather than going to court over the matter or mobilizing support to stop the injustice, they conclude that they cannot afford the mortgage on the apartment that they bought less than five years ago, so they must seek another place to live. In the meanwhile, since they are homeless, they move in with their respective friends; in Ben’s case, his relatives. Most of the film then deals with adverse consequences that flow from their sudden addition to families that operate at other levels from the routines to which the older couple have been accustomed. Directed and co-written by Ira Sacks, Love Is Strange (almost a remake of the 1937 film Make Way for Tomorrow) then becomes a noir film, perhaps discouraging same-sex couples from marriage until they assess the full consequences. MH