Joel Edgerton's 'Gift' REVIEW: 2015 Thriller Has Elements of 'Rosemary's Baby' & 'Saw'

Although this film is reworking the subgenre of the thriller film like Single White Female and Fatal Attraction did in the late '80s and early '90s. Joel Edgerton's The Gift does teach our couple and specifically Gordo (Edgerton) ends up teaching Simon (Jason Bateman) a very important lesson when it comes to bullying. The two childhood friends meet when Simon and his wife, Robyn (Rebecca Hall) move back to California after having a seemingly tough time (and miscarriage) back in Chicago where they are moving from. Gordo then proceeds to coming to their secluded, modern, almost all glass home while Simon is at work and bringing along unnecessary gifts for the couple. The set-up the characters is quite brilliant. The Cornell Daily Sun says, "Part of what makes this film excellent is that Edgerton creates characters that are interesting and complicated rather than flat puppets."

[Warning: Contains Spoilers!]

Add this along with a troubled past of Robyn having a prescription pill abuse history and Simon's emotionally stifling abuse in their marriage, and the plot of the film progresses at a slow-burning pace. We're not quite sure where the entire situation is going. Robyn finally becomes pregnant, which makes their tragedy in Chicago quite the distant memory. Time does heal all wounds and they have officially told off their very unrequited friend Gordo to buzz-off. The movie has that quality of not going anywhere and this to be sure, makes the audience very anxious, constantly wondering when the quiet will end and anticipate that big twist to happen.

What feels like two thirds of the way through the film, Robyn becomes too curious about something Gordo wrote in a letter to the both of them regarding the end of their friendship saying something about letting "bygones be bygones." After some snooping, and what can only be compared to Mia Farrow's timid curiosity in Rosemary's Baby, she finds out that Simon and a few buddies decided to make up a rumor that Gordo was gay in high school. Simon even spread a very specific rumor regarding an incident with another man in a car. As a result, this rumor, which turns out to be entirely untrue, leads to Gordo's father trying to set him on fire for being a "homo." Simon won't retract the statement and Gordo has to move away and leave their high school. When Robyn finds out about this unfortunate piece of her husband's past, she is determined for him to make amends. To be fair, the majority of this revelation comes towards the end of the film and this is the second slight twist. It becomes a bit obvious and dances on the edge of seeming a little silly. However, there is a bit of a Saw element in the sense that he who doesn't appreciate what he has in life had better watch out!

What's the huge reveal towards the end of the film you ask? Oh no, you'll have to see for yourself. This film generated a C+ grading due to the fact that it continues to surprise the viewer from opening to end, playing with one's expectation of the genre and for the typical horror movie-like situations our characters face. However, at times it feels as though the movie won't ever end and we'd prefer if the characters would come to their conclusions just a bit faster.

Grade: C+