"The Gift" Implodes In Execrable Third Act
Gordo’s introduction is as undetectable as his personality. As newly relocated newlyweds Simon (Jason Bateman, “Identity Thief”) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall, “The Prestige”) browse the racks at a department store, Gordo lurks on the periphery, announcing his presence only after silent, careful consideration.
He introduces himself as an old friend of Simon’s, to decidedly mixed reception. Simon is distant and incredulous, Robyn warm and welcoming. Their dispositions don’t change much in the following weeks, Simon exceedingly wary of this steadily blossoming but unwanted friendship. Robyn isn’t nearly as perturbed, mostly shrugging off Gordo’s unsolicited trips to their new home. He seems friendly enough, she reasons.
As Gordo’s behavior becomes increasingly strange – his ceaseless parade of housewarming gifts, especially – Simon finally works up the nerve to break it off.
Up to this point, Edgerton’s hand remains steady. The film is well-staged and well-acted, playing like the simple but confident thriller it aspires to be. Hall is good, Bateman is better, and Edgerton channels Michael Shannon to great effect, painting Gordo as a less threatening Norman Bates.
Through the halfway mark and even beyond, audiences should find “The Gift” an ensconcing creep-fest, hearkening back to madman mood pieces like “Cape Fear” (Scorsese’s version in particular) and “Psycho,” with a touch of director David Fincher (the modern day master on obsession put to film).
So far, so good, until Joel Edgerton, screenwriter, self-destructs. Spectacularly.
The third act of “The Gift” is so gross, so exploitative that it’s a wonder it made it from page to screen uncontested. Without involving heavy spoilers, it concerns the filmmaker’s treatment of his female lead, rendering her character little more than a prop and her arc immaterial. What was once an intriguing morality play turns shortsighted at best, puerile at worst, invoking the most hackneyed and uncultured plot turn in recent memory.
For a film that initially plays like the kind of movie M. Night Shyamalan would be making had his career not become a slow-motion car crash, it’s a crippling conclusion. It retroactively blows up much of what came before, stripping its best scenes of meaning and the film at large of any rewatchability.
“The Gift” is not a bad film – some of it even borders on riveting – but it does become an ugly one.
Either Edgerton didn’t trust his audience to embrace a more humanistic (or at least subtler) conclusion, or he didn’t know any better. Either way, it’s an unseemly black mark on an initially compelling movie. Its flaws are fatal. Worst of all, they didn’t have to be.
-J. Olson
Rating: ★★ out of ★★★★★ (Not So Good)
Release Date: August 7, 2015
Studio: STX Entertainment
Director: Joel Edgerton
Screenwriter: Joel Edgerton
Starring: Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel Edgerton
MPAA Rating: R (for language)
Social justice warriors shouldn’t be allowed to review movies. This review was fine until it imploded in an awful eighth paragraph that went off the rails into smug, self-righteous whining about anything bad happening to a female character ever (or not happening, because it isn’t clear, and part of the plot is the psychological torture that comes from not knowing the truth).
Seriously, this review is moronic. The movie was great. The ending was great. I almost didn’t watch it because of this dumb review, and that would have been a shame. I’m not going to reveal what this guy is complaining about, but the entire review is basically a whiny freakout from someone who spent way too much time dodging real classes in college in favor of Grievance Studies courses. Quit being the art police and get over the fact that if you’re going to have realistic female characters, bad things might happen to them.
This is EXACTLY what I was just about to write! Very well said! I too was also discouraged from watching the Gift because of this arbitrary review. I am so glad i ended up watching it. Some people just get too easily offended…
I have to agree with the other 2 reviews above.
The film is great (always playing with what the audience traditionally expects) and the ending is a brilliantly crafted piece of psychological torture.
I agree with the reviewer that this negates the entire POV prior to this ugly ending.
But I also think that almost every time he writes Rebecca he means Robyn! It’s distracting from an otherwise astute review.
Good catch!
I just finished this movie and came to Rotten Tomatoes to see if eviscerated – not because of the ending, but because the whole thing was ridiculous. I’m amazed that the two bad reviews I’ve read talk about the end as the only really bad thing.
Didn’t it bother anyone else that Justin Bateman seemed fifteen years too old for the lead in this film? Everyone else seemed so much younger.
Didn’t it bother anyone else that two people came and attacked the house – like that’s something that happens.
Wasn’t it odd that he wrote the name down of the guy who he had to beat to get the job. When he wrote it down I was like, “I wonder when this guy is going to show up later in the film.”
The implied rape at the end just seemed ridiculous and stupid like the whole movie. It was not believable that her character was popping prescription pills, especially enough to pass out. What kind of prescription pills do you take that allow you to be raped without waking up? And if you’ve been raped, you would most likely know it when you did wake up. WTF.
Apparently the writer isn’t a big pill taker nor has he ever talked to a woman about what it feels like right after you’ve had sex. Presumably without lubrication.
And Gordon didn’t seem like someone who would rape her. He seemed to care for her.
I have no idea why I’m writing all of this.
Because you like to spoil plots to movies?
Thank you! People’s seemingly uncritical acceptance of the very shallow exploration of a cheap plot twist in the third act of what is supposed to be a psychological thriller astounded me; good to have some company.