The Gift

Don’t let its seemingly formulaic premise deceive you, The Gift plays with convention to deliver a smart, suspenseful, and expertly-crafted psychological thriller.

The Gift starts out like pretty much any well-off-couple-moves-into-a-new-house-and-get-a-stalker story. Simon and Robyn (played by Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall respectively) move to Los Angeles because of a fancy new job and, the always-present-in the-genre, “past trauma they want to move on from”. Their idyllic dream for a fresh start comes crashing down though after a chance encounter with an enigmatic character from Simon’s past, Gordon (played by The Gift’s writer-director Joel Edgerton) – who amidst his showering of extravagant gifts to the couple may be hiding more than he seems. (As I said, clichéd as clichés can get.)

What’s great about The Gift though is that is fully recognizes its clichéd premise, it embraces it. It deliberately uses this familiarity felt by the audience to set them up for a uniquely tense and twisted path nobody is really expecting.

For the get-go, you are lead to believe that this will be a story of how our hero couple will get terrorized by this unstable individual (who will most likely be a creep no one will ever cheer for). They’ll endure and overcome all the torment unleashed on them by this scorned psycho out for revenge and end up living happily every after. But Joel Edgerton’s Gordon is not just another Max Cady or Alex Forrest, he is much more layered than that. Throughout the movie you will begin to question sides – who deserves what – and it is this kind of complexity that makes The Gift as immersive as it is.

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Performances also play a big part in crafting this deeply engaging thriller. Jason Bateman is able to use his natural “I’m an everyman but somehow I’m better than you” demeanor to play Simon, the husband putting up a facade. Rebecca Hall, also gets the vulnerability that comes alongside sympathy on point. Above all the cast though, it is Joel Edgerton who shines as the creepily unreadable Gordon. Edgerton gives his character a social awkwardness that is equal parts unnerving and pitiable. (If you think about it, it shouldn’t be suprising that he gets the character because, you know, he wrote this story.)

Throughout The Gift, the feeling of nerve-racking uneasiness envelops the atmosphere. Your notions of what will happen next have been tossed out the window and, not only that, you no longer know who these characters on-screen are. You come to a point where you no longer know who to root for. It is this tension that makes The Gift a good movie. Many times in movies, after facades have been broken and everybody’s true nature is on display, everything just descends into madness. This doesn’t hold true for The Gift. It doesn’t only maintain the mind games but also involves you in them. This makes The Gift lives up to the term Psychological Thriller in every sense of the words.

The Gift opens this August 19 from OctoArts Films International.