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| Joel Edgerton in The Gift |
Cast: Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel Edgerton, Allison Tolman, Tim Griffin, Katie Aselton, Wendell Pierce, Beau Knapp, Adam Lazarre-White, David Denman, P.J. Byrne, Busy Philipps, Felicity Price. Screenplay: Joel Edgerton. Cinematography: Eduard Grau. Production design: Richard Sherman. Film editing: Ben Baudhuin, Luke Doolan. Music: Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans.
Joel Edgerton's directing debut The Gift starts as a stalker thriller and morphs neatly into a revenge tale, Jason Bateman plays Simon Callem, who has just moved to Los Angeles with his wife, Robyn (Rebecca Hall), when they meet Gordo Moseley (Edgerton), who went to high school with Simon. Robyn, who is new to LA, is happy to meet people, and is surprised at Simon's coldness to Gordo, who shows up again uninvited, bringing gifts, after their first encounter in a shopping mall. It's a neat setup for an exploration of the secrets that even people who are married to each other manage to conceal from each other. Edgerton's screenplay and direction handle the gradual change of perspective in the movie nicely, but it's Bateman's performance that makes the story work. He shades Simon from likable and affable, traits Bateman's previous roles have often emphasized, into something much darker. Although the denouement feels a bit overelaborate, the ending leaves viewers to ponder an ambiguity about the nature of retribution.
