The Gift
Rating : 7/10
Release Date : 21st August, 2015
Time : 100 minutes
Director, Writer: Joel Edgerton; Music : Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans
Starring : Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel Edgerton, Tim Griffin, Allison Tolman
This is a creepy little film that manages to get under your skin and provides a satisfactory climax. For almost all concerned.
High-flier Jason Bateman has just joined a new company and moved to California with his lovely wife, Rebecca Hall. They choose a lovely, open-plan house � the kind with fantastic views, more glass than anything else � and begin the process of settling in. She is a little introverted, restrained, recovering from a miscarriage the previous year, and they�re both pretty keen to put that behind them and start a family afresh. And then, in a chance encounter, they meet Jason�s school-mate, Joel, at a store. And he begins to bring them gifts, to help them settle in, and soon minor fissures in paradise start to appear�
What is fascinating about this film is that any and all eventualities are open around the halfway point. You have no idea who is doing what, why�there is just an insidious build up of tension, without you really knowing why or anything dramatic happening. Even the music score is excellent that way, being around in a very non-intrusive way. The characters are extremely well developed � again built up over time, with little incidents rather than a rush of information.It was good to see Jason in a role quite different from his normal, like Hancock, and similarly good to see Rebecca in a leading role after bit parts in movies like The Prestige, Iron Man 3 and Transcendence. But it was Joel who really stole the show - in a very quiet, understated way - a real revelation to see what he came up with in a movie written, directed (debut) and starring himself...
One of the signs of a good movie is that it makes you want to discuss it in full � reveal the plot details simply to be able to have a conversation around them. The genre normally doesn�t lend itself to watching the film again � but here it will be interesting to see it from the start, knowing what you know. It�s a good mindf**k of a film, great to watch late at night, build-up the atmosphere and wonder what the hell is going on�