Sometimes bad things can be a GIFT
After moving back to the hometown of his youth to start a new job, successful businessman Simon (Jason Bateman) has a chance meeting with old high school acquaintance Gordo (Joel Edgerton). The two quickly strike up a friendship, or rather, Gordo strikes up a one-sided friendship with Simon’s pretty wife Robyn (Rebecca Hall), dropping by unannounced when Simon is not home, leaving bizarre gifts on their doorstep, etc.
The Gift marks the feature film directorial debut of actor Joel Edgerton, perhaps most well-known for his starring roles in Warrior, Exodus: Gods and Kings, and the upcoming Johnny Depp crime thriller Black Mass. The film was produced in association with the Australian production company Blue-Tongue Films, of which Edgerton is a founding member, along with his lookalike actor brother Nash Edgerton, who frequently serves as Joel’s stunt double in films, and incidentally makes a small appearance in The Gift as Simon’s coworker. One glaring oversight in the film is the inclusion of this unexplained doppelgänger, who inexplicably bears striking resemblance to our title character despite having no apparent familial relation.
The Gift has all the makings of your standard psychological thriller, complete with the usual edge-of-your-seat suspense and frights to make you jump out of your seat. But it manages to rise above its typical genre counterparts, if only slightly, by toning down these elements to a somewhat believable level and adding some dimension to the characters. This, along with our preconceived notions about films of this genre, will leave the audience asking questions. Is Gordo some crazy stalker bent on terrorizing this couple, or just an eccentric who wants to make friends? Is Simon the good-natured, honest businessman his wife thinks he is, or did he lie and cheat his way to the top? Who is really terrorizing who? Stellar performances by Edgerton, Bateman and Hall will leave viewers to answer these questions for themselves, and perhaps to ask more questions than there are answers to.
