Review of The Gift (2015) by Nick D — 19 Jan 2016

This was pure brilliance! I love this movie on so many levels and it might just be my favourite thriller of the year. So, the movie follows the life of a married couple who move to Chicago in order to have a better life and because of the jobs.

Upon shopping one day, they stumble upon someone who claims he went to school with the husband, Simon. Simon doesn't remember him, but the guy, Gordo, remembers everything! And before you know it, he's stalking them, sending them gifts, inviting them for dinner and all kinds of other stalker stuff.

It may seem like a usual stalker-horror type of a movie, but this movie is so much more than that! It's one of those movies that when you're watching it, you think you know what kind of a movie you're watching, but you really don't.

The ending shocked and totally amazed me! The build-up to the ending is fantastic! As the story slowly unravels we find out more and more about the characters and their pasts, and the question that kept popping up in my head was, who is the bad guy here? Without spoiling much of the rest of story, I'll just say that you really need to watch this without watching the trailer, as the trailer does reveal a lot of stuff.

The acting was brilliant! Every actor did a terrific job and they portrayed their characters really well and you could really feel the pain/suffering they were going through. The soundtrack is very intense and makes even the most normal scenes seem like there's something hidden happening.

It's directed beautifuly and Joel Edgerton, even though he wrote it, directed it AND starred in it, did an amazing job with this movie. I would highly recommend checking this movie out as it really lives up to its rating and it will seriously make you think about how one event can change so much in lives of, not just you, but other people as well.