Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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SEPTEMBER 24-30, 2014 UCW 37 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM 102 Westwood Shopping Ctr Fayetteville, NC 28314 910-423-JOES www.monkeyjoes.com Find us on for fan only deals at MJFayettevilleNC! A big THANK YOU to Up & Coming Weekly readers for voting us "Best Place to Have a Kids Party" for the 3rd time! $2 off your total admission! May not be combined with other offers. Limit one per visit. Valid only at Fayetteville, NC location. Expires 10/19/14.. THANKS! 1-888-814-7578 • NextCare.com • WAHOO! ® – (Wait At Home Or Office); we'll call you to let you know when your exam room will be ready! • All major insurance is accepted, including Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE; or discount programs are available if you are uninsured. Voted Best Urgent Care in Fayetteville 217 Glensford Drive Fayetteville, NC 28403 (Glensford Drive & Campground Road) Open 7 Days a Week Mon.-Thurs.: 8am - 8pm Fri.-Sun.: 8am - Midnight NC_Fayetteville_BestUrgentCare_Ad_0814.indd 1 8/19/2014 2:33:12 PM Not Bad for an Adaptation The Giver (Rated PG-13) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS The Giver (97 minutes) is composed of strengths and flaws in equal measure. I didn't read the source novel until I was in my late twenties and I didn't even realize the existence of three other books set in the same future until I sat down to write the film review. While I usually remember the books I read if I love them, all I remembered about The Giver is that it was dystopian and it involved an older man giving his memories to a boy for some reason. I did not even remember how it ended so that about two-thirds of the way through the film I started thinking to myself with outrage, this ending wasn't in the book! Of course, the film follows the book narrative fairly closely and the ending that bothered me so much was in the book, which might explain why I don't remember the plot of the novel. While a book can get away with a less than probable ending provided the author is clever enough, to watch that same improbable ending play out on the big screen stresses the bounds of imagination to the breaking point. The setting is a utopian/dystopian community of the future. The opening segments are shot in black and white to emphasize the fact that the community is based on "sameness." No inhabitant except the person assigned to be the Receiver of Memories (Jeff Bridges) is given any knowledge of a world outside the community or knows any history that extends earlier than the beginning of the community. Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), our hero, is on the verge of his assignment to his lifelong career. His friends Asher (Cameron Monaghan) and Fiona (Odeya Rush) are assigned their jobs but Jonas is selected to take part in a wargame arranged by the Capital … or maybe he is Divergent … it is so hard to keep the young adult dystopias separate in my head! Whatever, he doesn't get a job assignment with the other graduates. Instead, he is made to stand on the stage like a twit while every other person gets to sit down, only to find out he was chosen to train as the new Receiver of Memories. Was it really necessary to make the poor kid into a spectacle, Chief Elder (Meryl Streep)? If your society does not tolerate difference to the point of using daily drug injections to scrub the emotions from people and anesthetize them, wouldn't it be more productive to pick him up in the middle of the night and assign him his special status privately? Well, I guess that's why I'm not in charge of a quasi-futuristic mountaintop commune full of abnormally attractive people. I just can't see the bigger picture. Anyway, Jonas discusses his new life with his family unit. The family unit is a male/ female pairing that lives in the same place and raises their assigned (not biological) children. Father (a more amazing than usual Alexander Skarsgard), Mother (Katie Holmes), and Lilly (Emma Tremblay) all drink the Kool-Aid on a regular basis and see no problem with living the glamorous life of a cultist. Would it be in poor taste to suggest that Katie Holmes did such a good job of portraying life under a fascist regime after her marriage to, and subsequent divorce from, Head Scientologist Nutcase Tom Cruise? Over time, as Jonas becomes more self-aware, he begins to see the downside of living in a cult. Then, about two-thirds of the way in, the story loses a huge hunk of credibility and I started waiting for it to end instead of wondering what would happen next. Maybe I would be more forgiving if I had managed to read all four novels before seeing the film. For those of you wondering, you can find out what the author intended for Jonas by taking a look at The Messenger, which apparently reveals the ultimate fate of the protagonist. I plan to take a look later myself. HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200.