Review: The Gift
The premise may be familiar, but actor Joel Edgerton's intelligent screenplay and confident direction elevate the psychological thriller, The Gift.
Wasting little time with exposition, the film begins with Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall) moving into their spacious new home in the hills of L.A.'s East Side. With floor-to-ceiling windows, glass walls and an open floor plan, it seems a transparent, light-flooded home for the happy couple eager to start the next chapter of their lives. While shopping at a home furnishings store, they run into an old school classmate of Simon's. The classmate's name is Gordo (Edgerton) and his appearance unsettles Simon, who initially denies remembering him but ends their encounter with an exchange of phone numbers and a vague promise to catch up.
As Simon starts his climb up the corporate ladder at his new job, Robyn is left alone in their home, keeping herself occupied with the occasional freelance project, daily runs, and getting to know their neighbours. We soon learn that Robyn is recovering from a recent miscarriage and dealing with depression. Meanwhile, Gordo has suddenly become a constant presence, leaving various gifts at their door and dropping by unannounced. Simon finds it all too disturbing and stalkerish, but Robyn is more forgiving and chalks up Gordo's behaviour as mere social awkwardness.
When Gordo insinuates himself into a dinner invitation, he recalls the old times with Simon, sharing how happy he is that Simon has made a success of his life. It's not surprising, he tells Robyn, when Simon was class president, his slogan was "Simon Says" because he could make anything happen. At the end of the evening, after Gordo has gone home, Simon marvels at how some people like Gordo haven't changed, the subtext being that Simon is all the better for having developed so much since their school days. That statement proves a delusion on Simon's part. As Gordo persists with being a presence in their lives, Simon reveals himself to be a controlling and compassionless bully.
Harking back to the days when adult thrillers like Fatal Attraction, Unlawful Entry, and Single White Female populated the multiplexes, The Gift employs the usual tricks of the genre to unnerving effect but never for a cheap thrill. The calibrated manner in which Edgerton shades Gordo's actions with both innocence and suspicion reveals a priority to characterisation and psychology. Much of the dread is derived over the contradictory interpretations - what does this bottle of wine mean, is Gordo's invite a reciprocal one or another opportunity to ingratiate himself, is Simon's barely disguised hostility a valid reaction or does it lend weight to Gordo's cryptic note about letting bygones be bygones?
The beauty of The Gift is how long Edgerton maintains the mystery and delays the reveal of the root of the men's relationship. "You're done with the past, but the past isn't done with you," Gordo tells Simon at one point, and one of the prevailing themes of the film is that the consequences of past actions have no expiry date. The Gift is also about how abuse can take on many forms, even masquerading as kindness. Though the dynamics between the men are front and center, they are anchored in and reflected through Robyn's perspective. In many ways, the film is less about the slightly homoerotic, victim/victimiser dynamic between the two men and more about Robyn's victimisation by her husband.
Her story may be The Gift's actual core. Simon professes to be under her control when the opposite is very much the case. He boasts about her accomplishments to their new circle friends and denies that he doesn't want her to go back to work. He wants whatever she wants, he says, and yet somehow he always gets his way. The dawning realisation that her husband may be something other than he appears, and that she may have been blind to it all along, is what makes the blood run cold.
The Gift
Directed by: Joel Edgerton
Written by: Joel Edgerton
Starring: Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel Edgerton, Allison Tolman, Tim Griffin, Busy Phillips, Wendell Pierce, Nash Edgerton, David Denman, Katie Aselton
