on rotten tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 35% based on 160 reviews with an average rating of 5.3/10. the site's critical consensus reads, "phillip noyce directs "the giver" with visual grace, but the movie doesn't dig deep enough into the classic source material's thought-provoking ideas." on metacritic, the film holds a score of 47 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."