Joel Edgerton’s (Warrior, Exodus: Gods and Kings) The Gift is easily the surprise hit of the summer. Creepy and suspenseful, this movie is a clinic in developing characters and fully entrenching viewers in the storyline. I saw the film in a theater that was 75% full, and you could hear a pin drop during its quieter moments. Everyone was all-in on the story, and nobody seemed to know where it was headed because of the oohs and aahs at each new twist. Given its 93% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, I did not doubt this movie would be good. However, I did not watch a preview beforehand (on purpose), nor did I know anything about the film other than what someone said the night before my viewing that they had heard it had a crazy twist.

I had no idea who Edgerton was before I saw 2011’s Warrior, a movie I thought would fall into all the cliches of a boxing/fighting film and end up laughable. I based this on a series of trailers that didn’t offer anything I hadn’t seen before, as well as the cast. The only actor I had heard of at the time was a washed-up Nick Nolte who, as it turned out, was perfect for the film. I had no idea who Joel Edgerton was, nor had I heard of some new kid on the street named Tom Hardy. But, boy, have times changed in four years. Edgerton and Hardy are both reaching the elite level. And the fact that Edgerton wrote this magnificent screenplay, went behind the camera for the first time in his career, and delivered a knockout performance has me in absolute awe at the moment. I may forget about this movie more quickly than I think, but it is resonating with me right now. Though there are MANY more potential great movies to come out this year, The Gift is the third movie (along with Ex-Machina and Southpaw) that has a legitimate chance to finish in my end-of-year Top 10.

One thing you might wonder, if you have seen the previews or heard the buzz, is whether this movie is scary. While it certainly is not a horror, it will have you jumping a handful of times. Edgerton’s portrayal of social outcast Gordo is so incredibly excellent that you’re wondering to the bitter end of the film if he’s a good guy or a bad guy. There are so many twists in this movie that M Night Shyamalan would be impressed. When you think you’ve got this thing figured out, guess again. And it’s not that the film is difficult to follow (as an aside, I’m not too fond of movies that are difficult to follow or are deliberately meant to confuse you). It’s just that Edgerton has crafted something so uniquely original with his screenplay and then was able to convey his vision to his two leads and have their performance exactly on cue with what he was going for, which was so remarkable that, regardless of how the film would end, you were watching something pretty darn special.

I’ve been saying for more than a year now that Jason Bateman (Juno, Up in the Air) has a Best Actor Academy Award win in him during his lifetime. Many will chuckle, and I would have chuckled myself a few years ago. He’s been mostly a comedic actor, not a big name. Arrested Development put him on the map again after many years of being out of the limelight. And he’s been able to capitalize on that success with other comedies, including Horrible Bosses, The Switch, The Change-Up, and Identity Thief. But he’s also shown the ability to play characters that aren’t nearly as likable as the characters he plays in his comedies. He has proved he can play “the jerk” just as well as anyone. There is a script in the future that has his name all over it, putting him in serious contention for the most significant acting awards. It will be a drama, and he’ll play some father figure who has to deal with considerable diversity. The role will further showcase his depth as an actor. But that is in the future. In the present, he nailed his performance as a high-achieving, though slightly arrogant, businessman and devoted husband, Simon, in The Gift. Much like Edgerton, it’s impressive just how much we learned about his character and how it evolved over one hour and 45 minutes.

And Rebecca Hall (Transcendence, Everything Must Go) continues to deliver. The best actress you’ve never heard of continues to tackle roles that require more and more out of her. As Ben Affleck’s love interest in The Town, Hall’s portrayal of Claire was one of the main reasons why this is my favorite movie of all time. Sure, Affleck and Jeremy Renner had some say in that, too, but this movie introduced me to her. In The Gift, Hall plays Simon’s wife, Robyn. We see the movie mainly through her eyes. There are fewer than a handful of scenes in which she is not, and in those in which she is, we see how things play out from her vantage point. Her portrayal of Robyn is never a perfect woman (though she is beautiful and seems completely put together at the start of the film). Her insecurities almost manifest as the story develops, and she reaches a point where she becomes paranoid about everything and is scared to live her life.

So now that you know the characters, I’ll briefly touch on the story. Simon and Robyn move from a small condo in downtown Chicago to restart their lives after Simon lands a corporate job at a very successful security systems firm. They move into a beautiful house in the suburbs of a large California city (presumably Los Angeles), very close to where Simon grew up. In one of the film’s first scenes, he is identified at a department store by Gordo (Edgerton). The two men attended high school together and graduated from the same class. Simon doesn’t remember Gordo as they first start talking, but then the memories come back to him. The two rekindle their acquaintanceship, and before long, Gordo is making house visits to Simon and Robyn’s home. From the very first scene, we know something is not quite right with Gordo, but we can’t place a finger on whether it’s a good weird or a bad weird. As audience members, we are conditioned to believe it’s a bad weird because if it were a good weird, would this movie be classified as a suspense/mystery? The film’s pacing is perfect. As mentioned in earlier paragraphs, I don’t know how Edgerton, as the director, managed to make us identify with each character so quickly. There aren’t many first-time directors out there who get it right as well as he did with this movie.

As the movie progresses, the story goes as we imagine it would. But as soon as we think we’ve figured it out, it goes in a different direction. The characters change in profound ways. The time frame for this movie from start to finish is about a year. Some scenes occur one day after the next, but then others have months between them, and we never feel lost. Again, this can be attributed to Edgerton’s familiarity with all aspects of his story. I hope others notice just how masterful he was in all aspects of this movie. The cinematography was beautiful. The music was eerie. The way that he was able to work in periods of silence and delay the climax of some of the more suspenseful scenes was Alfred Hitchcock-like. I know I’m throwing powerful analogies all over this review, but I was just so impressed with Edgerton. I thought his career-defining film would be Warrior, but an hour into this movie, I realized that The Gift would be the one we compare all his future movies to. And this is a good thing.

There are so many reasons to love this film as an independent entity. Maybe it is the story itself. It may be all of the unique twists that happen along the way. Maybe it’s the edge-of-your-seat fright when you anticipate something ominous happening, and Edgerton waits until the perfect time to drop it on your lap. Maybe it’s the acting. Or perhaps it’s the incredible character development. Any of these reasons alone would make this a good film. However, the fact that it had all of these things made it the must-see movie of the summer. So far, the only film in 2015 I would recommend above The Gift would be Ex Machina, but personally, when you add everything up, The Gift was the better movie. With all of the big blockbusters this summer, The Gift is the movie you’ve got to see.

Plot 10/10
Character Development 9.5/10
Character Chemistry 9/10
Acting 9/10
Screenplay 10/10
Directing  10/10
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 10/10
Hook and Reel 10/10
Universal Relevance 9.5/10
97%

A

Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie

• Gone Girl
• That Hand That Rocks The Cradle
• Unlawful Entry
• Cape Fear
• One Hour Photo