Review of The Gift (2015) by James T — 17 Sep 2015

Despite its strong performances and Hitchock-ian direction, in the end, "The Gift" fizzles. Built upon a slow-burner of tension, the film is handed a plethora of paths it can take. And, quite often it does very well in taking the path less taken. Just as you think it is going to enter the cliche, it does not. And, just as you give it enough credit to stay "smart", it gets dumb. That stead of direction actually worked... almost.

Despite some truly eerie acting and setups, in the end, we get just a more adult version of "The Cable Guy" with a lot of loose ends and "what-ifs". When the big surprise is revealed, it doesn't come across as much of a surprise at all... And with so much focus on the deterioration and aftermath it caused, a simple plan of action could fix it all. If I were to give it away, it would be a Maury Povich episode of "how to fix things". I actually enjoyed the film up until the last fifteen minutes or so, and then it just fell flat and threw common-sense out the door...