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    The Gift

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

    WARNING: This review is hidden because it reveals the content of the film.
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    I think you can tell a great film from one that’s merely good by counting the different emotions you feel while viewing it. If you have moments where you feel sad and just as many that have you fearful or ecstatic, it means the movie is engaging, it’s more than just a way to pass time. “The Gift” is a movie that made me feel all kinds of different things. With the full range of emotion and the way the ending wraps itself up, I won’t be forgetting this movie anytime soon. If the story sounds familiar at first, just bear with me for a moment. Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall) have just moved into a beautiful house in Los Angeles, near where Simon grew up. He’s got a promising career ahead of him, she is taking a break from a stressful job in Chicago and they look forward to building a family. While shopping, they bump into an old high school classmate of Simon’s, a man named Gordon “Gordo” Moseley (Joel Edgerton, who also wrote and directed the film) Gordo is overly friendly but he seems harmless enough. When he begins coming unannounced to the house, often leaving them gifs it becomes unnerving but it’s nothing compared to what Robyn begins seeing in her husband.

    If you see a trailer for this movie, you’re going to think that it’s the same old same old. It’s the happily married couple who befriend a guy that seems nice at first but turns out to be crazy. Eventually it will lead up to the phone lines being cut and the wife screaming for her life while the stranger is wandering inside the house looking to cut her up because they rejected his enthusiastic offer of friendship. This movie is that story at first, but it’s also so much more. The key here is that there are two directions from which the unease and the thrills come from. Obviously there’s got to be something wrong with Gordo. He’s too nice and too socially awkward to be anything but a future threat. Then again, maybe he isn’t. Maybe we’ve just seen too many movies because there’s something about the way that he puts Simon on edge that is just as unsettling. A mere mention of Gordo brings out a side of Simon that his wife had no idea was there to begin with. I’d say it’s one of those situations where you have to choose between the devil you know and the one you don’t, but it’s more like choosing between the devil you don’t know and the wolf in sheep’s clothing.

    Watching this film was intense because so much of it isn’t about what is happening, but about what could happen. Every shot where we see Robyn sleeping in bed could lead into the night where you realize that they’ve pushed Gordo too far. Often nothing obvious happens; it just builds up the suspense and makes you wonder if the movie is just trickin you into thinking the threat is outside the bedroom. Maybe the danger you should be looking out for is the one that’s lying in bed next to her. As the film continues, so much of it becomes a mystery where you’re trying to figure out what the deal is with these two men. Then, we have an additional element of tension when we learn some things about Robyn as well and you’ve got no idea where the story is going to go.

    A big part of this movie is frightening because it makes you repeatedly rethink what you assumed where easily identifiable clues as to who you’re supposed to look out for and who you’re supposed to cheer on. It certainly helps that the acting from everyone involved is completely convincing and the fact that these characters are credible. Simon and Robyn know that if something weird is happening in the middle of the night that they shouldn’t just dismiss it as a deer in the back yard and when Robyn begins looking into things on her own, she knows how to keep cool and collected in order not to give herself away.

    To give you an idea of how this movie manages to build on the complexity of the characters and keep making you change how you feel about what’s going on, consider this scenario. Let’s say you were dating a girl and she was really awesome, but one day she made an off-hand remark about how she heard that her close friend Jordan was visiting his mother in an old folks home. She thinks it’s really sweet because Jordan is adopted and the woman might have raised him, but she’s not really his mother. When you mention it to your girlfriend’s parents they fall silent and admit to you that they never told her, but she’s adopted. Your mind immediately starts swimming with all kinds of questions. Was that comment a clue? Was it a way to get the ball rolling so that you would bring up the subject with her parents? Could it be just a nasty comment that means nothing more than that your girlfriend seriously doesn’t understand what the meaning of a parent is? Each question makes you feel something different. If she isn’t dropping a hint, it just makes you angry. You want to tell her that she’s adopted, in the hopes that she realizes how insensitive she is. On the other hand you might be profoundly saddened to hear that she thinks of families who have decided to go with adoption as one that’s of a lower level. Is one scenario better than the other, or are they both just a way for you to dismiss the fact that your girlfriend knows a lot more than she’s letting on and wants you to figure something out on your own as well, but doesn’t trust you enough to just ask?

    This is a movie that keeps changing as you get deeper into it. What emotions are generated by the ending I think will vary a lot depending on who you are. I found it to be sad and also gleefully diabolical and I think that in a way it is a happy ending, but in another way it’s one that’s chilling and upsetting. If you see the movie (and I hope you do) you’re going to wonder if one thing did happen and I think it’s pretty clear that it did not, but the point is that you are never going to know for sure, and that’s going to haunt you. I know I’m being vague, but that’s because you don’t want this plot spoiled for you.

    My only complaint with “The Guest” is that it takes a bit of time for it to get out of the same setup that we’ve seen countless times in the numerous imitators of “Single White Female” that have come in over the years. It goes in all sorts of different directions ultimately, but I found myself restless at the very beginning. Once it amps up the tension though, I was consistently frightened but excited to see what was going to happen next. With that ending, it redeems some of the points it lost early on so I’m going to end by saying that you just have to stick with it for a while. “The Gift” reveals itself to be an insightful, very intelligent thriller that plays with your expectations and will have you eager to discuss it with your friends. (Theatrical version on the big screen, August 12, 2015)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  14.8.2015 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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