REVIEW: The Gift

I believe it was back when I went to go see Insidious: Chapter 3 when I first saw the trailer for Joel Edgerton's The Gift. The idea of a horror/thriller based entirely around an unrequited friendship elicited but one reaction from me; this was either going to be legitimately great or hilariously schlocky. Having finally experienced The Gift for myself (and expecting the latter), I'm honestly surprised at just how good it turned out to be.

Married couple Simon and Robyn (Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall) have just moved from Chicago to Los Angeles, ready to start a family and begin a brand new chapter in their lives. Things become complicated, however, with the addition of "Gordo" (Edgerton, really pulling his weight on this production), an old high school classmate of Simon's. Though he comes off as a little awkward, Gordo really puts forth an overzealous effort to be friends with Simon and Robyn, leaving them lavish housewarming gifts and attempting to organize hangouts at every opportunity. Eventually, Gordo's constant presence begins to wear on the couple and it becomes apparent that this friendship is wholly one-sided. After an attempt to end the whole relationship is made, things take a sinister turn and we slowly begin to realize that all is not as it seems. For about the first half of the runtime, things play out exactly as one would expect. It's full of exposition and cheeriness to contrast with how dire things will surely get later, while plot points and tiny bits of foreshadowing are sprinkled throughout. It lulls you into a false sense of security in the fact that you know exactly how this is all going to play out, right before things take a wild turn. Had it not been for the quality of the third act, I'd be writing this off as just another fun but altogether pointless thriller. Just like You're Next, this is a film that plays with the audience's expectations and absolutely revels in subverting them.

It's almost a little frustrating, since I can't really go into detail in regards to what made me enjoy this movie without just spoiling everything, but the places this film goes to really makes up for the comparatively not-as-good beginning. While everyone gives a great performance, the first act is really quite slow; up until things start going bad with Gordo, there isn't really much that happens. We get introduced to our characters, see them go about their lives, exposition is exchanged, but Gordo is really the only thing that moves the plot along until a certain point in the story. It's something of a disservice to these characters; they're all really fleshed-out and interesting, but I feel like we should have gotten some more hints of the aspects of their personalities that become important to the plot later on. That's not to say that there's NO early characterization (especially when it comes to the character of Simon), but some more (particularly for Robyn) would have been greatly appreciated. I've also got to take a proverbial point away for the film's use of jump-scares. While it's true that this kind of scare is "effective" (in that it makes people flinch and go "AAH!"), the startled reactions are almost always followed by laughter. The movie is really good at building tension and suspense, but then it blows it all for a cheap payoff like a dog jumping into frame. The unsettling atmosphere would have been even better than it already is, had a little more time and care been given to developing these moments.

The performances from the main three cast members are all spectacular. I'm most familiar with Jason Bateman as George Bluth on Arrested Development, so it was really impressive to see him play such a dramatic role as well as he does here. Rebecca Hall does a good job as Robyn, but I would have liked to have seen more of her character. The two make for an interesting pair, with Simon being more extroverted and Robyn being more reserved. Simon quickly tires of dealing with Gordo, but Robyn tries her hardest to be kind to him. They act as strong foils to each other, but the nature of the character makes Hall's performance stand out less than Bateman's. That's not to say that her character doesn't have any depth to her, but rather that she feels a bit too passive considering she's such a major player in the story. I really must applaud Joel Edgerton's work here; not only did he pull triple duty writing, directing, and producing this picture, he also stars as Gordo, giving a really nuanced performance. We never really know what to make of Gordo; at times he can come off as sympathetic and misunderstood, at others he feels like a legitimate antagonist. You never quite know what he's capable of, even up to the very end; there is no moral black and white in this film. Even if you wanted to make a decision as to who's right and who's wrong, the film doesn't give you all the pieces to the puzzle. No matter how you feel about these characters and what they do, you can never be 100% certain that your feelings are totally justified, which is something I feel makes this movie quite special.

Beautifully shot and legitimately surprising, The Gift is a great first effort from Joel Edgerton. While it does occasionally fall victim to periods of slowness and the various tropes and clichés of the genre, it showcases enough creativity and cleverness to make for something really unique and substantial. I recommend it and hope to see more from Edgerton, both behind and in front of the camera.