Today I wanted to be a little more intentional with trying to ensure I had something a little more modern and a different kind of scary. I wanted something that would build some real tension and not just throw jump scares at me or be a full on hot mess like my first two outings at this venture. So I went through my list of movies I had picked out from all the streaming services I belong to and I landed on The Gift. This one is actually in my personal physical media collection but I had never gotten around to watching it so a nice secondary bonus was I moved it from the unwatched blind buy to something I’ve now watched and enjoyed. Which is also my not so subtle way of announcing that I did actually enjoy this film. But I should probably clarify that a little bit. I actually HATED this film. But not in the way you might normally think. I really did enjoy it but the cringe factor was SO high that I was squirming in my chair for most of the movie. But that’s exactly what the intention was, at least in my estimation, from writer/director/actor Joel Edgerton in this suspenseful horror flick. Again, I’m putting that this is a horror movie on Paramount+ because that’s where I found it in the first place, their horror section. I’ll give you that it might lean more towards just a suspenseful thriller but there were a couple pretty decent scares in the flick that I think gives it a bona fide case at dipping at least a toe in the horror end of the pool as well. So lets get into the flick itself.
I like this format of going over what I liked about the movie first. I probably should have done a little more of that with Shocker from yesterday because that movie is now permanently living rent free in my head. I’m actually thinking of buying it and I don’t even totally know why. But there were elements of things here and there that I’m sure I could have been at least a little more positive on in my write up. But overall because I do love movies, even bad ones, I feel like there’s a real appropriateness to hitting the high notes for a film even if it wasn’t really one you fully enjoyed. I know not every movie seems to have something redeeming but I feel like as a Cinemaster and just general appreciator of movies, there still does need to be some modicum of respect for the people who expended an effort to put a movie together for me, even if it was a steaming pile. Now I shouldn’t give you that idea for this movie. This film was quite good. So lets dwell on some of that for a moment.
My favorite thing about this movie is the acting. I particularly enjoyed Jason Bateman. The whole of the main cast including Rebecca Hall and Joel Edgerton as well were also considerably compelling in their own rights. But I really have to give it to Bateman. I know he’s in that Netflix show that everyone loves but I’ve never seen it so I’m mostly used to him as a comedic presence. In this film he is almost a borderline villain and it was really nice to see him be challenged by a different kind of role. He handled it masterfully. The more you learn about him, the more unsavory he becomes. He’s a weasely sort of person. No, not a crimson haired magical fellow with hand me down sweaters. He was just an increasingly unlikable character throughout the film. But the mechanism only worked because all three players really came into a harmonious sort of tragedy. It all only works because everyone does their job really well and to do that they all had to be different sorts of broken and disturbed.
Bateman and Hall are an aging couple moving back to his hometown from Chicago. He is the breadwinner working in corporate security and she is in between jobs. As a couple, they are looking to start a family. But Hall’s character does struggle with also wanting to go back into the workforce after the move. We are almost immediately introduced to Edgerton’s “Gordo”, a former high school classmate of Bateman’s character who happens upon him in a Pottery Barn sort of establishment. Gordo introduces himself and jogs Simon’s (Bateman) memory as to who he is. There’s a somewhat cordial exchange and empty promises of a get together meant to placate the awkwardness of it all in the end. The problem is that Gordo wasn’t looking for an empty promise. The first gift, of many, is a lone bottle of wine left on the front door step. Curious how he knew where they lived, the shake it off and continue about their business. Then Gordo shows up in the middle of the day to a home with only Robyn (Hall) at home. Where Simon was reluctant to rekindle a relationship with Gordo, Robyn seems to have a soft spot for him. I will say this is clearly necessary to the plot but also one of the things I found to be a little unhelpful. Her perpetual willingness to side with Gordo for seemingly no reason didn’t make a lot of sense. It seemed to be under the guise of being polite or pleasant but it morphed into an almost odd sort of divided loyalty where she would err on the side of Gordo instead of her husband. Again, in the end it becomes an integral device for the plot to culminate but early on it seems a little heavy handed.
Ultimately Gordo continues to infringe and the interactions are just weird. It’s not horror movie weird where you are immediately shut down emotionally to Gordo. You’re meant to be somewhat sympathetic to him. That’s the sort of push and pull between Simon and Robyn. He’s very much against the idea of inviting Gordo any further into their lives and she seems to have some sort of affinity for him that is truly platonic. Gordo continues to push his way further and further into their lives until Simon puts and end to it. It’s awkward. And it doesn’t really work. But it does migrate us into the unraveling of things as I see it. Gordo is the catalyst for much bigger things but that was always his intention. I don’t want to go too far into what happens in the plot because if you’ve not see this movie, I do think its worth a watch. It’s nice because while it does function as a vehicle for my 31 days of horror, you could watch this movie any time of year. It’s got some good scares here and there but the tension is really the best part. Where I was squirming last year while watching As Above, So Below for the podcast because of the physical tension, the emotional and relational tension in this movie was nearly as palpable. There’s plenty of those movies where there’s a stalker that’s just got this ominous presence that creates opportunities for fright. But this was handled a bit more gently to where the uneasiness was still there but it wasn’t in your face like somebody was in the house. There was a low level creepy feeling that lingered around. Its akin to being home alone in your own house in the middle of the day and you think you hear something upstairs or see something out a window in the distance. Just those little nudges that make you feel like someone else is there. Many times people describe their fear as being all alone in a situation but the reality is what you’re truly afraid of is the reality that you are NOT alone when you think you are. This movie plays off that nicely at times and even misdirects that suspense as well. Edgerton really does a great job in delivering the whole package with this movie.
I’ve already alluded a little bit to what I didn’t love in this movie. For all the intentionality behind Gordo’s master plan, it does rely pretty heavily on some factors that ultimately he is unaware of in his characters visibility as well as a few things he has no control over which is sometimes problematic for me. I know when you’re watching a movie you want the main character to not go in that door or leave that box alone. And in reality, those actions make total sense. So the fact that this person on the screen is behaving in a way that seems antithetical to typical human behavior can be maddening. “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT??” makes all the sense in the world to us but also if the characters behaved totally rationally then the movie would be pretty boring. Its not often that normal people find themselves in these extraordinary situations presented in a film. So some of the suspension of belief, especially in a film like this which is steeped in reality, still has to be present. It’s a lot easier to just have to go with it that Jason or Michael Myers is still alive just because. You just have to allow for the fact that Freddy gets you in your dreams. Those are fantastical suspensions of belief that you sign up for when you press play. You can’t turn on Nightmare on Elm Street and then argue with the fact that somebody can’t kill you in your dreams. It completely undermines the point of the movie. With a flick like The Gift, it’s much closer to regular reality so we expect for everyone to behave as we would in a given situation. Unfortunately sometimes this is where the suspension has to come into play. It’s not great but it’s also not quite as big of a leap. Some of the elements have to be revealed even to us as the audience to understand the nature of the relationships. Spoiler alert here but about midway through the movie we find out that Robyn has had some kind of issue with pills in her past. I don’t know that Gordo could have really known that but it’s a very convenient segue for him to drive a wedge between Simon and Robyn via some other methodology. So it’s little things like that where I, as the audience, am privy to something that I know other characters are not, but somehow their actions still line up with the idea that they somehow DO know things they’re not really supposed to. That feels even a little confusing to me now that I acknowledge it. But I digress.
Ultimately the film culminates in some fairly dark revelations and the train starts to really go off the rails for everyone. There’s a very sinister element to it and the creep factor of it all works really well with the overall tone of the movie. I really did enjoy this movie quite a bit. I feel really confident giving it a B. It wasn’t amazing but it was a great departure from the other fare I’ve kicked off the Halloween season with so far. I really have to give it to Edgerton, Bateman and Hall for such compelling performances and Edgerton with the direction of the film. The visuals add a real aesthetic to the entire production. Even the architecture of the home feels worked in almost as a fourth character in the movie. I would highly recommend this one if you’ve not seen it or even if you have. It definitely feels like one you know a lot about what is going to happen from the onset of the film and half the fun is struggling to make it through the awkwardness of it all. So many times I had to hold myself back from fast forwarding just a bit to get out of a tense situation. I had to make myself pay attention and not distract myself to take me out of the cringe. That’s the mechanism here and you just have to endure it. It’s the heart of the entire story and because of that it really builds all the way up to some serious revelations in the finale of the film. I think this one will stand the test of time and I definitely envision rewatches in the future for me. So that’s going to wrap up day three of my 31. It’s been fun. Maybe tomorrow we’ll dive back into the awful kind of horror that typically takes place in the month of October. But for now I’ll catch you on the flip side.
