Review of The Gift (2015) by April C — 21 Aug 2016

Horrible movie. As an audience member, I was not challenged nor do I feel The Gift is wickedly smart. This poor example of bullying fell very short of its mark. And the ending was appalling, especially as a woman.

.. to project in any way that a wife deserves or is due the backlash from one bullied because of what their husband did/does, and in such a way, is like justifying the action, and that is what The Gift did, it condones rape or at the least, drugging an innocent and simulating the act of rape as punishment for bullying.

Yes, it did. And if this is what the movie was about, then it would fit, but it wasn't. This movie meant to show powerful affects of bullying in the long run, but it fell short, way short, because the bully character is portrayed throughout almost the entire movie as a good guy.

When it is found out how he bullied Gordo the Weirdo, all of a sudden, it's like he's an instant bad guy... no edge of your seat, just complete character shift that made no sense. If the audience had seen this malicious side of his character throughout the film, insidious, and deliberate, then the audience would be able to commiserate with the wife's freaking out and her contempt, but because it didn't, she came across as a whiny.

damaged, and apparently drug using weak woman who may or may not have killed her baby in the past, but since nothing at all about their past was every initiated or used to segue into the characters current state of mind, then we really have no idea and are left in the dark.

And then, Jason Bateman's character does one, yes, ONE, unethical business move and he's fired, and loses his friends and his wife leaves him, and this is all because of his bullying of Gordo in high school, without rectification since, and a totally out of character beating of old Gordo because his wife yelled at him about it.

But none of this, at all, makes the ending make any sense... I would never watch this movie again, nor recommend it except to tell someone to watch it just so they could share with me how terrible the ending is, how it doesn't fit the movie, how it may give other weirdo's bullied in life justification for abusing, drugging, and possibly raping their tormentor's innocent wife.

No, it's a just bad movie. The only reason I even gave the one star is because, well, it's Jason Bateman.