This is one of those movies where the title is terrible because it really says nothing about the film. If anything “The GiftS” would be better suited. That being said, my wife and I saw this in the cinemas last year, and we thought it was quite well done and worth seeing. Is it worth owning on DVD? Probably not for me. But I would recommend it to someone else as a rental.
The Gift is about a young married couple Simon and Robyn, played by Jason Bateman (Horrible Bosses) and Rebecca Hall (The Town), who move back to his hometown area after Simon had taken a job there. Soon, their already fragile life and relationship is threatened after a high school acquaintance named Gordo, played by Joel Edgerton (Exodus: Gods and Kings), becomes inappropriately codependent of the couple, leaving them odd gifts on the doorstep of their new home.
However, there seems to be more to Gordo than what’s on the surface as Robyn starts to learn certain things about Simon from his days in high school, some of which may have carried over to his adult life and their marriage.
So, this movie is a thriller about Gordo tormenting Simon and his wife. Underneath the surface, I’d almost say the movie is about what secrets can do to a marriage. The plot is basically being told from Robyn’s perspective since she, like the audience, is the one investigating different confusing facts she learns about Simon as she attempts to learn more about Gordo’s high school nightmares.
This is where the movie was very well written. Maybe it’s just my love for a well-plotted mystery, but her piecing together this picture of high school darkness from Gordo’s and her husband’s past was presented near perfect. I also appreciated the “event” from Gordo and Simon’s past which destroyed Gordo and left him bitter and vengeful wasn’t something simple like bullying.
Although Simon turned out to be a bully, their backstory didn’t exactly end at a couple classroom wedgies and some general hazing. Their “event” was terrible and made you feel for Gordo and really being unnerved by him, feeling anyone who went through that as a child would probably be dangerous and capable of almost anything violent in this movie. The backstory made the movie, I felt, and learning about it through Robyn’s character was perfect. This film is a major credit to Edgerton as a screenwriter and director since he served both roles on this production.
I also enjoyed how this movie could have been riddled with sudden jumps which I HATE. I call this technique to cheaply startle an audience The “OH CRAP A CAT” Technique. Mostly because it’s usually a cat which jumps out to startle the audience. In this movie, the jumps aren’t nearly as superficial. They are slow, methodical and far more effective.
Like I said, this film is simple on its surface but gets far more complex once you get into character inner motivations and conflicts, get into what the material is truly trying to say and the immense backstories Edgerton’s original screenplay had to share about it’s frail characters.
However, I will not own this on DVD mostly because I don’t think the magic can be recaptured after you’ve seen it the first time. So there’s no point in owning it. I would recommend it to any one who is in the mood for a quality thriller without a ton of blood and gore or the unusual pacing of a M. Night Shyamalan film. These types of thrillers are rare I feel, especially one written this well.
Overall, this movie leaves me most curious what Edgerton as a writer and director has in store for us next.
Great review, I agree with most of the points you made. Especially about jump scares.
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