The Gift Movie Review

The Gift (2015)

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Written by: Joel Edgerton
Directed by: Joel Edgerton
Starring: Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel Edgerton 
Rated: R
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Plot
When Simon and his wife Robyn run into Gordon, a high school classmate of Simon's, Robyn suspects Simon is hiding something about his past with Gordon.

Verdict
This is a neat concept, but it doesn't go far enough and it doesn't explore the concept deep enough. Combine that with a few leaps in logic the movie makes and it just doesn't work. It works more towards revealing a person's true character than revenge, and that is an issue because the character enacting the revenge feels irrelevant. The ending, which is critical, just doesn't work. This feels like a cheap knock-off version of the excellent Korean revenge movie Oldboy (2003). Don't confuse it with the sub-par American remake from 2013.
Skip it.

Review
The Gift opens with a standard scenario.  Simon (Jason Bateman) and his wife Robyn (Rebecca Hall) move to a new town and he sees an old classmate, Gordo (Joel Egerton). They agree to catch up, and Gordo quickly becomes creepy, showing up at the house unannounced and leaving many gifts.
The movie creates a mood where you're waiting for the other shoe to drop. Gordo has to be crazy. The movie portrays him as a liar, so what is his goal?

Regardless of how we feel about Gordo, Simon is a jerk, and not just because he belittles Gordo, telling him to get lost. When Simon's dog goes missing, we assume it's Gordo.
Gordo's lies unravel, but we still don't know why he's doing this. Robyn begins to suspect Simon has a history with Gordo. At this point, I just want the movie to do something. I don't care if Simon or Gordo is the bad guy. Robyn hallucinating this whole scenario is also acceptable. It would be better than what actually happens.
Simon was a bully to Gordo and Simon is still a jerk. It's an incredible leap of logic that somehow his wife has never noticed this and is surprised. I noticed it quickly. Simon does little to hide it.

The Gift - It's always that weird guy in the background.

The movie has some tense moments, but the underlying message is lacking. Sure when you spread lies, facts don't matter. It's all about perception, and bullies are bad. That's not a revelation.
Gordo's revenge is a permutation of what Simon did to him, in that he got Simon to believe something. The torture part is Simon wondering if it's true.

Simon splits with his wife and loses his job at the end, but Gordo wasn't necessary to bring Simon to justice, he just sped up the process. Without the character Gordo in this movie, Simon still would have lost his job and potentially his wife because of what he did to a work colleague.
It doesn't help that the characters are slightly unbelievable in how they behave and react. I wanted something more. The ending feels incomplete. This is it? Was Gordo just hoping one day he'd run into Simon and could enact his half baked plan?

Maybe Gordo truly wanted to forgive Simon and tested him by killing him with kindness. Simon should feel incredibly guilty at what he did to Simon, but obviously isn't. I guess Gordo then planned out what he could do in the next thirty minutes.