Film Review: "The Gift"

Image via Variety.com

I will admit that when the first trailers for The Gift came out, it looked like a very generic and uninteresting thriller that gave me no desire to go out and watch it. But as it got closer to its release, critics began to see this film and came out buzzing with excitement for it. Positive word of mouth spread like wildfire and before I knew it, this movie had become a "must-see" for me. Well, after four weeks of its original release, I finally got around to watching this film and I could not believe what I saw. You see, The Gift did not end up being a good film. It ended up being a great one. 

**WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD**

The first time I ever paid attention to Joel Edgerton was when he appeared in Warrior, a movie that I absolutely love. Ever since then, I've been keeping an eye on him hoping to see him turn out more fantastic movies such as that one. While he hadn't impressed much in the films he had done between Warrior and The Gift, with Zero Dark Thirty and The Great Gatsby being the two standouts, I never lost hope in him because he had shown such great potential. What Edgerton did with this film was take all of that potential and show just how multifaceted he really is. Not only does he star in The Gift, he also wrote and made his directorial debut with it. 

One of the things that I love about this being his directorial debut is that he didn't start off with a big budget movie. Instead, he started with a film that had a $5,000,000 budget and made the most out of it. As a director, Edgerton was able to efficiently build suspense throughout the whole film. He kept an even pace and made sure that every scene had a purpose to the overall story. And as a writer? Edgerton crafted a very entertainingly creepy story with believable dialogue and actions. He also created characters that you could care for and characters that you could absolutely hate. My favorite thing that he was able to do, however, was the way he blurred the line between protagonist and antagonist because by the end of the movie, you just don't know who the bad guy REALLY is.

The movie starts off with married couple, Simon and Robyn (played by Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall), buying a new home together. While shopping for things for their new home, Simon is approached by Gordo (Joel Edgerton), who is an old acquaintance from their high school days. After their run-in with Gordo, he begins to deliver random gifts to their home which eventually leads to Robyn inviting him over to dinner. As their weird relationship with Gordo develops, we learn that Robyn was at one time pregnant but lost the baby. We also learn that she had some sort of substance abuse issue in the past. After their first dinner, things start to get even weirder when Gordo has them over to dinner at his place. The night ends with Simon telling Gordo to leave them alone as he is not comfortable with having him around. All the while, Robyn has been becoming suspicious as to why Simon dislikes Gordo so much. The deeper that Robyn digs into Simon, the more distant he becomes which strains their relationship and brings Robyn back to abusing pills. After Robyn passes out from what appears to be some sort of overdose, Simon confronts her about her drug use and from then their relationship seems to improve with Robyn even getting pregnant again. However, as Gordo continues to terrorize them, Robyn begins uncover facts as to Simon and Gordo's history and finds out that Simon bullied Gordo in such a terrible way that it lead to Gordo almost being murdered by his own father. Things unravel from then and Simon's life spirals out of control and losing his wife and job in the process. This magnificent story is capped off by an even better ending. We find out that when Robyn passed out, it was because Gordo drugged her and he filmed himself as he is about to rape her but shuts the camera off before he begins leading Simon (and us) to wonder if Robyn's baby is Simon's or Gordo's.

All of the three leads in this film did a phenomenal job in portraying their respective characters. I really enjoyed seeing Bateman in a more serious role as opposed to his typically comedic roles. I thought his performance in The Gift was overall very good. Rebecca Hall was also outstanding in portraying a character who while clearly being very troubled, also being very strong in her own right. The star of the film is undoubtedly Joel Edgerton, however. He gave off a very subtle, creepy vibe and as the writer/director, made sure to not include his character in more scenes than needed. This is very creepy movie that feels very real as well. It will scare you, but it will not scar you. Overall, it was very entertaining despite its slow pace and I give it an 8.5/10. With Halloween season upon us, this movie is perfect to kick it off.