Movie Monday - The Gift

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

That old Klingon proverb describes exactly how I felt after my recent viewing of STX Entertainment’s latest thriller, The Gift. It was cold. The film is the story of married couple Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall) after they move back to Simon’s home town in California, and unexpectedly encounter an old classmate of Simon's named Gordo (Joel Edgerton). Simon and Rebecca’s seemingly perfect lives are turned upside down after several uninvited visits and unwelcome gifts from Gordo. The story quickly focuses in on Rebecca and her quest to unearth the secrets from Gordo’s past, and takes a chilling turn when she begins to realize her husband may not be who he says he is.

The Gift is a movie that’s hard to call inherently bad or good. The subject matter of the film will make even the most die-hard mystery fanatic uncomfortable. As a happily married man, many of the themes of deceit and insecurity hit very close to home, and made viewing the film quite unpleasant for me. I can honestly say it’s not a movie I am ever going to own, and would probably never watch again. But does that make it a bad movie? Not exactly. An individual's takeaway from The Gift is going to depend on their frame of mind, including where they think the director is coming from, what he intended, and which characters they choose to empathize with (if any). All three of the leads have serious character flaws and defects that led me to hate them all equally more than identify with any one of them in particular.

STX Productions

STX’s production partner is Blum House Productions, of Insidious and Paranormal Activity, and true to their roots, they make use of their trademark tense sound mixing and jump scares ad nauseum. The jump scares felt tired and out of place in a movie with no real supernatural element to it. I may be jaded having recently been on a horror movie kick, but even the perfectly executed jump scare about 50 minutes into the film that visibly shook up the entire theater audience felt out of place afterwards, in the same way a perfect roundhouse kick would be out of place in a synchronized swimming competition. The audio work in the film, however, was fantastic, keeping me constantly on the edge of my seat in a movie that actually burns quite slow. Performances from Bateman and Edgerton in particular couldn’t have been better, and especially show’s Bateman’s range outside of the ironic comedy that he has been featured in for most of his career, famously in Arrested Development.

STX Productions

I have a tough time believing anyone would actually enjoy this movie, however, giving the film the benefit of the doubt, it’s safe to say that this may have been the point. Leaving your chair after the film concludes is oddly similar to waking up after a bad dream and turning the light on, lending that “I’m ok, and you’re ok” kind of epiphany. If this was indeed the intention of Director and Actor Joel Edgerton then the movie succeeds on all accounts and will be satisfying to mystery buffs everywhere. The plot, themes of deceit and intense story of revenge, however, left me feeling cold and, in general, awful. With movies, “fun” isn't necessarily the same as “good,” and this is the kind of movie aimed straight at the audience's tolerance for intensely humorless social discomfort. Mission accomplished, Joel, I just don’t think I’m getting in line for that rollercoaster again.