The Gift (2015)
Starring: Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel Edgerton, Allison Tolman, Tim Griffin
Directed by: Joel Edgerton
Rating: 
It's August, and I've got the whole of the Edinburgh Festival at my feet. But instead I choose to spend my evening in the Omni Centre, two seats down from a pair of lads who look set to talk and check their phones the whole way through the film. Yet either the movie (or me, with my crazy-eyed bollocking) succeeds in shutting them up. I like to think it was the movie; I'm really not that scary.
To be fair, neither is The Gift. But, bar a couple of obligatory jump scares (albeit nicely done ones) this absorbing psychological thriller is a cut above your average multiplex horror fodder.
Smug marrieds Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall) have just moved into a big new house (with great big windows just made for voyeurism) near to Simon's home town, ready to start a family. Almost immediately, they run into an old school pal of Simon's, Gordo (Joel Edgerton) a sad sack of a soul who latches onto them in a way that could be perceived as either somewhat forlorn or downright creepy, depending on how generous you're feeling. Which in Simon's case is not very generous at all. For as Gordo continues to bombard the couple with slightly off kilter kindliness, it's Simon who starts acting like the real asshole, patronising, belittling and ultimately quite cruel, not just to 'Weirdo Gordo' but to Robyn as well. Just what did happen between the boys 25 years ago at school?
Both Bateman and Edgerton give convincing performances, the former's track record of playing flawed nice guys making his crass behaviour as Simon all the more surprising, while the latter puts in an interestingly restrained turn - no Glenn Close scenery chewing in home wrecker movie.
With her pale skin, elfin haircut and encroaching pregnancy, there's something of the Rosemary Woodhouse about Hall's Robyn. Both are early disclosers (why the urge to tell the new neighbours everything?), while Simon jokingly blames Robyn for encouraging Gordo's advances, calling her an 'open door'. And while The Gift is not in the same league as Polanski's seminal Satanic thriller, the films share a similar sense of claustrophobia and unease. True, it all gets a little silly towards the end, but the final scene is remarkable for its subtle chill. An interesting and absorbing directorial debut from Edgerton - and if it can shut up two rowdy teenage lads, it really is a Gift.