The Gift
Review by
Jane Freebury
Gifts are not
always welcome, nor freely given. The well known subtext to giving and
receiving gets a thoroughly sinister workout in this accomplished first feature
from Joel Edgerton, one of the many fine Australian actors on screen.
There are
interesting dimensions to Edgerton’s creativity. He has writing credits for
local features like The Rover, Felony
and The Square, and recently put in
especially good performances in big international screen events like The Great Gatsby and Exodus: Gods and Kings. Now he shows his
talent for directing in this, his first feature.
As both
writer and director here, Edgerton knows precisely when and how to turn the
screws, and delivers major discomfort to his audience, if sometimes a little
over-emphatically. With precision and assurance he has created a psychological
thriller that strikes at the heart of coupledom and a tainted professional
class.
Set in the
leafy hills of LA, a young husband and wife from Chicago, Simon (Jason Bateman)
and Robyn (Rebecca Hall), have re-located to the West Coast to make a new life—leaving
initially unspecified difficulties behind. Early on they cross paths at the
supermarket with a strange character by the name of Gordo (Edgerton).
Their
chance encounter is a neatly ironic comment on the
impossibility of trying to escape one’s past. Gordo went to high school with
Simon, and it eventually transpires that there is much more to it than that.
If Simon
isn’t keen on being re-aquainted, Robyn finds it hard to send Gordo away when
he turns up at the house announced. Though there is something passive
aggressive about the solicitude and surprise visits, and Gordo's face, a mask
that barely registers any expression, contributes to a primal sense of unease. The
news that he has done two tours of duty doesn't help either. He and his gifts
of koi carp for the empty pond, fish food and window cleaner would be welcome,
if only he wasn't so creepy, so needy. The asymmetrical 'friendship' is hard to
end, though gifts with signature red bows begin to signal an unspecified dread,
and the lovely airy open home begins to feel like a type of prison.
The ultimate
dark secret revealed in The Gift's denouement would have done Michael Haneke
proud. His chilling films like Funny
Games and Cache struck at the heart
of complacent privilege too. And there were several occasions beside
instructions to pay video tapes when I was reminded of Rolf de Heer's Alexandra's Project too.
It’s great
to see multi-talented Edgerton starting out with such a strong, assured statement
in America, though it's a bit of a pity the project lost its working title
along the way. The original title 'Weirdo'
would have done more justice to the film's sly complexity.
4 Stars
