Review of The Gift (2015) by Ydnar4 — 06 Aug 2015

I decided to see The Gift rather than the Fantastic Four and I was pleasantly surprised with how great this movie was. Joel Edgerton was heavily involved in this project. He wrote, produced and directed this film as well as playing a key role in the movie, but I never felt that Edgerton was tooting his own horn, the whole film felt very natural.

This guy certainly is talented in more ways than one and I have to say that The Gift is one of the best thrillers that I have seen in recent years. There are three really good performances in this film.

Jason Bateman shows some range in his acting ability and this is definitely my favorite role from him. Bateman is known for playing the straight-man in comedies and I’ve begun to get sick of him playing the same smart-ass character and even at first it seems like it he is just going to fool me once more but his character evolves as the movie goes and so does his performance.

Jason’s character Simon is not a good person at all and more and more is revealed about his past as the film goes. Rebecca Hall was also great playing Bateman’s wife who has her own troubles and is a interesting character to watch.

I understood a lot of her issues and she did a great job and she steals the show in some scenes. Finally Joel Edgerton could’ve played any role in this movie and he chose to play the villain, and I think he made an excellent choice.

This film is a little unorthodox because there are points when you really aren’t sure who the villain is because Jason Batman character is also a terrible person and sometimes you want to feel bad for Edgerton.

I loved Edgerton’s performance in this movie and I have been a fan of his since I saw Warrior where he starred alongside Tom Hardy. Edgerton also did an excellent job of writing the film, he has the sole writing credit and this film does not drag out any reveals and it has some really great twists and turns that leave no lose ends.

It may lose some of its re-watch ability because of these turns, but it is still an excellent watch. The Gift is a very respectable film for a first time director.