The Gift-2015

Director Joel Edgerton

Starring Jason Bateman, Joel Edgerton

Scott’s Review #264

Reviewed August 9, 2015

Grade: A-

The Gift (2015) is a throwback to the psychological thriller genre made famous by Fatal Attraction in 1987 and similar films throughout the 1990s.

An unstable psycho threatens a happy couple.

Interestingly, The Gift is similar in genre to a film also released in 2015, The Boy Next Door.

The Gift is worlds superior to that film and delivers surprises, frights, twists, and turns I didn’t see coming.

The film isn’t predictable, which is refreshing in this genre.

Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall star as Simon and Robyn, a successful young couple who relocate from Chicago to sunny California, near Simon’s childhood hometown, to start a new life and start a family.

They soon run into a man named Gordo, played by actor/director Joel Edgerton, a high school chum of Simon’s from twenty years ago whom Simon barely remembers.

Simon and Gordo plan to reconnect over dinner, but the audience senses something is off about Gordo.

As Simon, Gordo, and Robyn reconnect, Gordo starts leaving pleasant little gifts on Simon and Robyn’s doorstep and showing up at their house unannounced, which is particularly unnerving to Robyn, who is home alone all day.

Simon is consumed with his new career and possible promotion.

Interestingly, their home is located in a secluded area.

The film soon reveals that Gordo was nicknamed “Gordo the Weirdo” in high school and that an incident involving Gordo occurred, though nobody seems to remember the exact circumstances.

Perhaps they choose not to remember?

The vagueness of this situation is appealing because the audience is sure these circumstances will be revealed later in the story and play a large part in the climax, and they do.

We also learn that another incident took place with Robyn in Chicago and that she suffered a miscarriage. She does not drink and avoids pills. Could she be unstable, imagining things, or overly cautious?

It is revealed that she handles stress poorly.

A wonderful aspect of The Gift is its surprise factor. As the plot twists and turns, I switch alliances and wonder who the villain is. Gordo? Simon? Robyn?

Edgerton (along with a great performance) directed the film compellingly and was undoubtedly influenced by Alfred Hitchcock.

The camera angles and score excel at establishing the right level of tension at just the right moment.

In more than a few scenes, the audience knows something will jump out at the screen, so there is anticipation, but when and how it will happen is a surprise.

Many scenes show Robyn alone during the day, thank goodness, when she hears a noise or notices the water running. These scenes are traditional fare in horror or thriller, but they’re well done in The Gift.

Simon is an interesting character. Sophisticated, educated, and with a high-level executive job, he has a strange fear of monkeys.

The past is a common theme of the film- past events encase the three lead characters, leading to conflict, and ultimately these events come back to haunt them.

Most of Simon’s friends are unlikable and seem more interested in style than substance. They seem drawn to Simon more for his success than because they care about him.

This contradicts his wife’s character.

Robyn is down-to-earth and kind, and does not place as much stock in wealth and achievements as she does in personality and being a kind individual.

She and Simon bicker and disagree about Gordo, and their conflict increases.

It is not often in films anymore that one is truly frightened and “jumps out of your seat”, but two intense scenes, one involving a dog and the other a shower, made me jump, and the hairs on my arm stand on end.

Everyone in the audience gasped together.

Now that is fun!

The only negatives in The Gift are continuity issues and the suspension of disbelief in some scenes. Without giving anything away, how does Gordo manage to do some things he can’t?

The Gift (2015) is an old-fashioned thriller with excellent acting, compelling characters, and a wonderful debut for Edgerton in the director’s chair.

The film will leave the viewer pondering moral questions and relating to each of the three main characters.