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| Joel Edgerton with marked facial features and dark-colored hair looks ominous with a big present on this poster for his own The Gift |
An attractive, successful married couple move into a house in the husband's childhood neighborhood in California, where an old schoolmate looks them up with gifts and disturbing behavior ...
The Gift is written and directed by great Australian filmmaker, debuting writer/co-producer/co-star/director Joel Edgerton (Jac et Bill (1996, short)).
Edgerton creates a dynamite thriller as his first venture into feature directing here: Elegantly told and shot, (by cinematographer Eduard Grau (Buried (2010))), The Gift is a whispering, creeping time, carefully dosed by what seems like the hand of an expert.
Jason Bateman (Up in the Air (2009)) is particularly terrific, but also Rebecca Hall (A Bag of Hammers (2011)) and Edgerton himself (as the blast from the past Gordo character) are excellent. It is also good to see Busy Phillips (Thrilling Adventure Hour Live (2015)) again, an underused actress, who looks lovely here.
The Gift is a complex film with many layers, which can't help but haunt one's mind for a time after it's over. An impressive feat.
Related posts:
Joel Edgerton: Loving (2016) - Edgerton and Negga own the screen in Nichols' powerful period drama (co-star)
It Comes at Night (2017) - Shults' sparse horror leaves too much unanswered (actor)
Midnight Special (2016) - Nichols' strange, cool sci-fi curveball (co-star)
The Rover (2014) - A dreary journey to Michôd's desolate, hopeless Australia (story contributor)
The Great Gatsby (2013) - Luhrmann exuberance and great stars create thrilling adaptation (co-star)
Warrior (2011) - O'Connor's superbly acted MMA drama packs emotional fireworks (co-star)
Watch a 1-minute clip from the film here
Cost: 5 mil. $
Box office: 58.9 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 11.78 times its cost)
[The Gift premiered 30 July (Los Angeles) and runs 108 minutes. Shooting took 25 days from January - February 2015 in Los Angeles, California. Edgerton only began shooting his own scenes 2 weeks into the shoot, and had his older brother, director Nash Edgerton help behind the camera then. The film opened #3, behind holdover hit Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and fellow new release Fantastic Four to an 11.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week in the top 5 (#5) and grossed 43.7 mil. $ (74.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 2.2 mil. $ (3.7 %) and Australia with 1.7 mil. $ (2.9 %). Edgerton returned with Boy Erased (2018). As an actor he returned in Black Mass (2015); Bateman in The Family Fang (2015); and Hall in Christine (2016). The Gift is certified fresh at 91 % with a 7.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of The Gift?
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