A young married couple's lives are thrown into a harrowing tailspin when an acquaintance from the husband's past brings mysterious gifts and a horrifying secret to light after more than 20 years.Director:
Joel EdgertonWriter:
Joel EdgertonStars:
Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel EdgertonStoryline
Simon and Robyn are a young married couple whose life is going just as planned until a chance encounter with an acquaintance from Simon's high school sends their world into a harrowing tailspin. Simon doesn't recognize Gordo at first, but after a series of uninvited encounters and mysterious gifts prove troubling, a horrifying secret from the past is uncovered after more than 20 years. As Robyn learns the unsettling truth about what happened between Simon and Gordo, she starts to question: how well do we really know the people closest to us, and are past bygones ever really bygones?Written by STX Entertainment
Details
Country:
Australia | USALanguage:
EnglishRelease Date:
7 August 2015 (USA)Also Known As:
WeirdoFilming Locations:
15615 Castlewoods Drive, Sherman Oaks, California, USABox Office
Budget:
$5,000,000 (estimated)Opening Weekend:
$11,854,273 (USA) (7 August 2015)Gross:
$17,077,323 (USA) (13 August 2015)User Reviews
A mind blowing, twisted film that just solidified itself as one of the best films of the year.
"You may be done with the past but the past isn't done with you.", one of the many creepy and subtly sinister lines out of Joel Edgerton's brilliant directorial debut. The Gift is the definition of a sleeper hit. It has all the right things going for it, a great cast, a great script and the potential to be a future classic. What starts off as a slow burn thriller, giving the audience enough exposè to make us really connect with these characters and sympathize with every single one of them then slowly turns into a new age Pacific Heights. The film pits Simon and Robyn, two newlyweds that have just bought a house in Simon's hometown. While out shopping, Simon runs into Gordo, a guy from his high school days that is a bit off and at that moment, the film takes off and we're given enough twists and turns to constitute this as shocking to say the least. Actor and, now, director Joel Edgerton knocks this film out of the park, making this a home run for it being his directorial debut. Hell, if this was his tenth film, it'd be a home run. Edgerton directs his screenplay and actors with such confidence, you'd think Adrian Lynn directed it. The three leads in Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall and Joel Edgerton couldn't be more perfect. Bateman delivers a career best performance, ditching his recent string of light comedies and applying his condescending attitude towards the yuppie entitlement in Simon. Rebecca Hall, who has yet to deliver a bad performance in my eyes, makes this no exception. She's fantastic in this film. Joel Edgerton also proves extremely eerie as Gordo and for someone to pull off the perfect trifecta such as Edgerton, it puts him in the same league as Ben Affleck. This is a fantastically twisted potboiler film that needs to be seen. The Gift stands as single handedly the best film of the summer and one of the very best of the year.
