The Gift

The one genre Hollywood really knows how to churn out well are suspense thrillers. Although Hitchcock was the master of suspense, there have been many equally suspenseful films produced as long as films have been around. It's the one genre that hasn't truly been bastardized to a point that you don't enjoy the film at hand. And who doesn't like to sit on the edge of that proverbial seat when watching these movies? So, we have another one of those suspenseful thrillers in our midst in the form of "The Gift"

Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall) 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 (Joel Edgerton) 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 Rosalyn learns the unsettling truth about what happened between Simon and Gordo, she starts to question: how well do we really know the people closet to us, and are past bygones ever really bygones?

Others to round out the cast are Allison Tolman as Lucy, neighbor friend of Robyn's, Tim Griffin as Kevin "KK" Keelor, Busy Phillips as Duffy, Adam Lazarre-White as Ron, Beau Knapp as Detective Walker, Wendell Pierce as Detective Mills, Nash Edgerton as Frank Dale, Mirrah Foulkes as Wendy Dale, David Denman as Greg, Katie Aselton as Joan, David Joseph Craig as Stewart and Susan May Pratt as Rhonda Ryan.

Secrets in films are always fun to watch in seeing how they play out and to whom and under what stressful situations they end up occurring. "What Lies Beneath", "Fatal Attraction", "Primal Fear" and others are films that have whopper surprises in them. So when director Joel Edgerton (shorts) helmed this, this aspect of total surprise had to come to mind. For this being his first feature film in the director's chair, he was brilliant in how he was able to extract emotions that ran from subtle to overt so well from these actors. He's a natural. This was also written by Edgerton ("The Square" '08, "Felony" '13, "The Rover" (based on a story by) '14) plus shorts. This was well structured in how the storyline played out, however, even though this ends bittersweetly, the end seemingly demanded more. Suffice it to say, the secret will catch you by surprise, but in the process, both characters that Bateman and Edgerton played are both difficult to feel sorry for, because they have their own set of issues, but in completely different ways. Edgerton is certainly a talented writer, and I would like to see what he would come up with given another project, but this, as powerful as it was, simply needed a bit more to explain at films' end.

The ending of this will become clear once you go to see this, and you'll understand what I am saying, but certainly if you like those nail-biting films that keep you on the edge of your seat, this production will definitely fit the bill.

Out of 4 Stars: 3                              Rated: R                                  100mins.