The Gift (2015)

[Athena]

Release Date: August 7, 2015.

 

Written, produced, and directed by Joel Edgerton in his directorial debut. The film stars Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, and Edgerton.

 

Trailer:

 

[Ohwell]

I'm in.

[methodwriter85]

I like the thought of Jason Bateman playing someone who was a high school bully. He played such nice guys as a teenager. (Derek was probably destined to be kind of an ass, but he wasn't a bully.)

[Spartan Girl]

Pretty sure one of the "gifts" will be the dog's severed head.

I'm so over that trope, by the way. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, justifies killing a pet.

[galax-arena]

I liked it up until the denouement when Simon got the tape and videos. It just seemed so convenient that Gordo sent all that info over so that we, the audience, could finally put the last part of the puzzle in place. I get why he did - he wanted to fuck with Simon's head about the baby - but the way it all came together felt a bit contrived. Like: "Oh, this is the climax, we'd better let the audience know that yep, Gordo was a creep all along." It was very "muah ha ha, let me tell you my evil plan." 

 

Speaking of Simon and the baby, that's another thing I wasn't sure about. I take it that Simon was going to keep his mouth shut about the child's questionable paternity and was begging Gordo to do the same? Because he didn't want Robyn to know that she might have been violated that way? (I mean, of course she was violated regardless with Gordo taping her and molesting her, but it's left up in the air as to whether or not he actually raped her.) With the characterization that we got of Simon, with the movie gradually stripping him away until we saw the mean bully underneath, that was not something I was expecting. I guess Simon genuinely loved Robyn and didn't want to hurt her, but the way we saw him going after everyone else who crossed him, I was expecting him to do something crazy/malicious after Robyn gave him the heave-ho at the hospital. 

[KnoxForPres]

Pretty sure one of the "gifts" will be the dog's severed head.

I'm so over that trope, by the way. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, justifies killing a pet.

I sat in fear, left once thinking dog scene might be coming, but rest well, that beautiful dog lived happily ever after.

[Spartan Girl]

The dog lives?! How refreshing! :)

[cpcathy]

I didn't get to the film this weekend, though I fully intended to. I checked Doesthedogdie.com, and found out the answer to that question. It'll tell you if anything bad happens to an animal for almost any film.

[KnoxForPres]

Yeah he lives. And he is well loved by his owners. :)

[methodwriter85]

I thought it was pretty refreshing. I think it kind of played with the fantasy that we all have- getting revenge on your high school bully, or seeing them apologize and genuinely feel remorse for their actions. Gordo seemed to really want the latter and pursued this friendship as some kind of way to be like, "See, I'm good now! You'll like me now!" It's like those episodes of talk shows where people want to for some reason impress the people that bullied them, like they'll get gratification from being liked now by people that used to treat them like shit.

 

But the reality is that teen bullies often grow up into adult bullies, and Gordo decided to go the revenge route instead.

 

I kind of wondered starting the movie why Joel Edgerton was wearing dark brown contact lenses and I guess that questionable paternity was the reason? But even if the baby had dark eyes, his mother has them as well, so that didn't make any sense. They should have had Robyn wear blue contact lenses. Or did they have Joel wearing them so that he would be distinguished from Jason Bateman? They do have very similar coloring.

 

One scene I really liked was when their new friends were discussing how weird Gordo is, and it just made me think, "Yep, high school never really ends in that regard." As well as Robyn kind of speaking up for him, which I feel like got complimented later in the film where Simon insinuates that Robyn identifies with being the bullied instead of the bully.

Edited August 14, 2015 by methodwriter85

[Madding crowd]

I had most of it guessed from the trailer, and I was really hoping to be surprised. It was OK, but I wanted something different. I know we were supposed to sympathize with Gordo to an extent but he was a creep, a possible rapist and God knows what else. By adding the bit where Jason Bateman's character did something awful to the guy who was in the running for his account, the story kind of lost me. Honestly, most kids in high school who start rumors about people are not sociopaths, they are just kids who want attention, want laughs, and don't understand the consequences. This movie could have been about an average guy who ruined someone's life and maybe learned a lesson. Instead we are supposed to be rooting for Gordo to punish Bateman, but they are both bad guys.

 

Some of the editing choices were odd too. Are we supposed to believe Robyn thinks she randomly passed out, found herself in bed hours later and doesn't bother to call a doctor or tell her husband?  I think the moral of the story is two wrongs don't make a right?

[Princess Sparkle]

Some of the editing choices were odd too. Are we supposed to believe Robyn thinks she randomly passed out, found herself in bed hours later and doesn't bother to call a doctor or tell her husband? I think the moral of the story is two wrongs don't make a right?

She does tell Simon that she passed out; its when he confronts her about taking pills. When he's confronting her, she says she fainted, and he says it's no surprise, gestures towards the pills, and then asks if she mixed them with anything.

I saw it today and I liked it. I genuinely felt tense during most of the film. Seeing Jason Bateman playing against type was unsettling to me.

Honestly, most kids in high school who start rumors about people are not sociopaths, they are just kids who want attention, want laughs, and don't understand the consequences. This movie could have been about an average guy who ruined someone's life and maybe learned a lesson.

I don't think we're supposed to think he's a sociopath, he's just an asshole. Simon mentions at one point that his dad was an asshole and he ended up fine, so I think his thought was "tough, hardworking people can get over that stuff and weak people can't", and he clearly thought Gordo was weak (mentally at least), or at the very least, still a loser. Making up that stuff about his rival for the job, I think, was just to show that he hadn't changed.

Edited August 15, 2015 by Princess Sparkle

[Madding crowd]

Well he did have secret files on people and did something to the guy who was his rival for the account, that goes beyond everyday asshole. And what I meant about Robyn is that if I remember fainting in the hall, I would immediately have asked my husband to take me to the hospital. Fainting is not a usual side effect of anxiety meds, especially since she had been taking them on and off for some time.

I didn't hate the movie but didn't live it either.

[cpcathy]

Enjoyed this a great deal. Loved the direction and the way it looked, very cool, stylized. Jason Bateman plays a great asshole.

When the movie was over, my husband saw the credits and asked who Joel Edgerton was, I said, "Gordo!" Edgerton's IMDB isn't very interesting, except he was young Uncle Owen in the Star Wars prequels!

[tinaw]

Saw this movie earlier today. I liked it very much.

Justin Bateman plays a great bad guy. I cant believe what he did to get that promotion. The actor that played Gordo i had some sympathy for when you found out what happened to him. Lost it though by the end of the movie.

Glad the dog was okay. I imagined we would find him dead in some horrible fashion. Good they didnt go that route.

All in all good movie

[Ronin Jackson]

I thought this was a good flick. I wish the trailers didn't give away that Bateman's character bullied Gordo as a kid... I liked the role reversal of Bateman turning out to be the villain, but I could see it coming from the previews and the reviews.

[heyitsme87]

I enjoyed this movie! 

Was there any real significance behind why Gordo was shown taking off the arm brace at the end of the movie?

[Princess Sparkle]

I enjoyed this movie! 

Was there any real significance behind why Gordo was shown taking off the arm brace at the end of the movie?

I believe it was to show that he wasn't hurt as badly by Jason Bateman as he was portraying to Robyn.

Edited August 26, 2015 by Princess Sparkle

[blixie]

 

I guess Simon genuinely loved Robyn and didn't want to hurt her,

 

 

Honestly, most kids in high school who start rumors about people are not sociopaths, they are just kids who want attention, want laughs, and don't understand the consequences.

 

Eh Simon wasn't a sociopath, he was just a lying asshole, and many lying assholes REMAIN lying assholes for their whole lives, and I I think that was driven home by Simon's intention to keep LYING to his wife about something so incredibly important that would sooner or later be exposed like all his other lies.  

 

In fact my subtitle for the movie was The Gift: Oops, I Married an Asshole. I liked the movie a lot it's a solid thriller, I thought if anything it really soft pedaled Gordo, and gave everyone believable shadings in what is otherwise a situation only people in movies would put up with (Gordo's increasingly boundary pushing actions). Robin relates to him, and Simon feeds into it in the false belief  he can control the situation. 

[methodwriter85]

I do think Robin gave off the vibe that she was an outcast growing up- something about her just seemed really uncomfortable with the "cool crowd" that Simon had basically set up at his work. That did make it believable why Robin was so tolerant of Gordo's increasingly pushy behavior.

[Petunia13]

Enjoyed this a great deal. Loved the direction and the way it looked, very cool, stylized. Jason Bateman plays a great asshole.

When the movie was over, my husband saw the credits and asked who Joel Edgerton was, I said, "Gordo!" Edgerton's IMDB isn't very interesting, except he was young Uncle Owen in the Star Wars prequels!

Joel Edgerton was good in a movie Warrior. I recommend it.

[Ohwell]

Joel Edgerton was good in a movie Warrior. I recommend it.

Yes.  I saw Warrior for the first time last week (on a tv channel I can't remember now) and he was great in that movie, along with Tom Hardy and Nick Nolte.   

[Chaos Theory]

I enjoyed this very much. My favorite type of movie is a psychological thriller and I really like the idea that we really don't know if Gordo is the father of the baby or not and that is the point. Once you poison the mind of someone the truth doesn't matter.

He managed to poison Robyn's mind against Simon with half truths and Simon with something that might not be true.