The Gift (2015)

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 Edgerton

Writer:

Joel Edgerton

Stars:

Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel Edgerton

2 wins & 12 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jason Bateman	...	Simon
Rebecca Hall	...	Robyn
Joel Edgerton	...	Gordo
Allison Tolman	...	Lucy
Tim Griffin	...	Kevin 'KK' Keelor
Busy Philipps	...	Duffy
Adam Lazarre-White	...	Ron
Beau Knapp	...	Detective Walker
Wendell Pierce	...	Detective Mills
Mirrah Foulkes	...	Wendy Dale
Nash Edgerton	...	Frank Dale
David Denman	...	Greg
Katie Aselton	...	Joan
David Joseph Craig	...	Stewart (as David Craig)
Susan May Pratt	...	Rhonda Ryan

Storyline

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?

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Plot Keywords:

gift | psycho thriller | rape | substance abuse | pregnancy | 

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Taglines:

The Sins Of The Past Will Become Your Present.

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official Instagram

Country:

USA Australia China

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 August 2015 (USA)

Also Known As:

Weirdo

Filming Locations:

15615 Castlewoods Drive, Sherman Oaks, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$5,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$11,854,273, 9 August 2015

Gross USA:

$43,771,291

Company Credits

Production Co:

Blumhouse Productions, Ahimsa Films, Blue-Tongue Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Datasat

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The question Gordie was asking at trivia had two parts. The first answer was the Beatles white album, and the follow up answer was the Helter Skelter murders referencing serial killer Charles Manson. In British English, a Helter-Skelter is a fairground slide that twists around the outside of a central tower.

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Goofs

At around 1:19:50 into the movie, when Simon goes to "apologize" to Gordo and proceeds to pin him to the ground, the shot shows Gordo surrounded by sheets of paper that fell on the ground. In the next shot he's suddenly not surrounded by paper anymore. The shot after that shows him surrounded by paper again.

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Quotes

Robyn: Funny, when someone lies to you enough, you just stop believing anything they say.

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Connections

Features Lucky (2005)

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Soundtracks

Love You Like This
Written by Austin Bello, Aron Frobes, Chris Spifogel, and Alex Burke
Performed by Austin Bello
Courtesy of Safe Word, under license by Music Asset Management, Inc.

User Reviews

Simon Says Go Watch this Movie

The Gift is written and directed by Joel Edgerton. It stars Joel Edgerton, once again, Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall.

The Gift surrounds a married couple(Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall) as they transition into a new job, new house, new neighbors, new friends, basically a new life. As they shop for furniture Simon(Jason Bateman) encounters an old acquaintance from High school, Gordon or Gordo(Joel Edgerton), with a creepy demeanor and an obvious grudge.

The Gift is Hitchcockian. I can't call it anything it isn't. I went into this movie with medium expectations and left with a newfound respect and awe for one person. This person is Joel Edgerton. As a director, he can't do wrong. The shots were inspired and eerie. He cut at just the right times to ensure the audience is terrified but not disgusted. As a writer, he can't do wrong. This is honestly one of the best scripts of the year and I hope it gets an Oscar nomination. It was so well written. The major player in both the direction and the writing is that no serious violence was portrayed in any scene in this movie but yet it manages to crawl under your skin and linger long after the movie's over. This is partly thanks to the excellent cinematography by Eduard Grau. Finally as an actor, CAN'T DO WRONG! He was creepy as hell but yet you some how want to root for him. He plays the role magically and was by far the best part of this movie.

Jason Bateman, oh how woefully I doubted you. At first I didn't think he could pull it off. But he did. He was perfect as well. he was sly and slimy as well as awkwardly funny and relatable ( before everything goes down). Rebecca Hall in many ways was the main character. She did great. Though she wasn't as good as Edgerton or Bateman, she certainly held her own. Another great aspect of the movie was the soundtrack and the score. It fit perfectly to the subtly creepy atmosphere. Finally Since the script was so well written the viewer is left in ambiguity towards the morals of a character and I find this masterfully executed with every twist and turn being virtually unpredictable.

All and all I loved this movie. Some might argue that the pacing is a bit off nut with such a short runtime. Certain things are justifiably stretched our skimmed. personally I didn't find this much of a problem. The Gift IS my favorite movie of the year so far and is a must see. The Gift gets an A+ or a 10/10. Simon says go watch this movie!