5 out of 5

Directed by: Joel Edgerton

“Oh, I know this one,” you think, lining up the decades’ worth of ‘evil neighbor next door’ films from whose lineage ‘The Gift’ could be said to have sprung.  As there are endless variations on any given theme, we seem to enjoy assuming the worst about the guy or gal who gives us the strange look every day, and having a film convince us that they’re a psycho killer (or that at the last minute IT WAS YOUR WIFE/HUSBAND/SISTER WHO WAS THE PSYCHO AND THE STRANGE PERSON SAVED YOU STOP JUDGING PEOPLE), and/or soothing our woes over breaking up with our crazy exes because crazy kills, motherfuckers.  So yeah, you know this one: Simon and Robyn (Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall) move into a swank house, nice neighborhood, paid for by Simon’s cushy new job, and it’s only a short matter of time before their idealistic lives are shaken up by a figure from the past: Simon’s old schoolmate Gordon – or ‘Gordo the Weirdo.’  And as writer / director Joel Edgerton plays him, he absolutely is off: lingering in conversation for just a bit too long; a little over-zealous with praise; showing up at Simon and Robyn’s house almost daily, especially when Simon isn’t home.  And those small gifts, left wrapped on their doorstep.  Harmless, but, yeah, off.

Robyn seems to accept his nature, being somewhat housebound and perhaps lonely, with a hinted-at shaky history, but Simon’s having nothing of it, and is soon telling Gordo to leave them the hell alone.

Oh, but you know this one.  Gordo’s not going anywhere.

And as the runtime ticks on, you might think of the possible ways in which this goes, and one of those possibilities might be correct.  It was for me.  But: I was never once bored.  I was, frankly, riveted; glued to the screen.  Even with all the cards laid out, I could go through the film a second time and feel the same.  Because what Edgerton decided to do with the material – as he did with The Square – is to take the expectations of the genre and use them for the requisite suspense, but to amp up the intensity of that by spinning the other elements of the movie.  In The Gift, that’s character.  This is, overall, a character study, and a devious one.  One that has us recognizing who these characters are as the film goes on and wondering if that changes how we feel about events.  By the rules of this style of movie, we can generally know our heroes and villains, but The Gift just doesn’t divide up that easily.  We’re helped down the winding path by some warm yet haunting cinematography by Eduard Grau – inviting us into the shadows – and a delightfully subtle score by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans.  The acting by all of our leads is entrancing, especially because it gives us those human elements that we can recognize in ourselves or others.  And Edgerton: man, wearing writer / director / actor hats but there’s not one iota of under- or over-indulgence here.  It’s quite an achievement.  Time to go catch up on the other films with which he’s been involved.

Unfortunately I have to watch some shitty DTV movies first.  Good with the bad, you know.