Color movies started showing during the late 1930s and ever since then color has attracted our eyes to the screen. The dominance of color can make any exception to the trend an interesting cinematic choice. And it’s the choice to move away from color to black and white that makes the new movie “The Giver” so compelling. The Walter Media production is based on Lois Lowry’s novel of the same name. The book, which was released in 1993, has sold more than 10 million copies. A year after the book’s release, it received the Newbery Award, an American Library Association award that recognizes significant contributions to children’s literature.

The movie is set in the year 2048 and chronicles a utopian society that follows in the wake of a devastating world war. “The Community” is governed by “the elders,” a group so named because all rulers must be over the age of 75. The leaders of this futuristic society got rid of color-consciousness altogether, as only a color-free society allows for diminished discrimination or racial awareness. A world where ancient antagonisms are eliminated is a world where rebellion against authority is not considered. Or so their thinking goes.

The citizens, all of whom dress in white, have had past memories erased. The Receiver of Memory, Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), is the only individual who receives memories from this now-banished past. The transmitter of these past memories is a garbed-in-black character known as the Giver. The Receiver of Memories is the only person allowed to possess memories. It’s his task to advise the Chief Elder (Meryl Streep) about decisions for the community. Jonas progressively receives memories, including knowledge of the Giver’s past. He also learns of the Giver’s child, Rosemary (Taylor Swift), a child who preceded Jonas in the same job. She was so traumatized from past memories that she committed suicide. Jonas passes on his findings to Fiona (Odeya Rush), a character who becomes his romantic opposite. Fiona is unsure about love-freighted feelings, mostly because the whole concept of love is outlawed in this utopian world.

Throughout the movie’s first hour, scenes are all in black and white, as this view is in consistent with Jonas’s worldview. But as the story progresses, he is able to see colors. Not only that, but he goes off adventuring, in his own quest to find what’s beyond the border of memories. Go on your own quest and catch “The Giver” at a movie theater near you.