2015 was really an amazing year for actor Joel Edgerton, because he not only received lots of praise for his performance in the Johnny Depp crime film "Black Mass", but also wrote, directed and starred in "The Gift", which was his first full feature film as the man in charge behind the camera. And judging from what I saw here, I'd really love to see more films directed by the man in the future. Of course, a very personal advantage for me with this 105-minute film is that I quite like the 3 main actors here, namely Jason Bateman, the stunning Rebecca Hall and of course Edgerton himself. The only other cast member I was familiar with here is Wendell Pierce from "The Wire", even if he, just like everybody else, really does not have a lot of screen time at all. It is all about the lead trio and I disagree with some awards bodies here who categorize Edgerton as a supporting player. He may not be as much of a lead as the other two, but he is absolutely vital to the whole story.
This is the story of a man who was a school mate of another man and enters the other man's life after 20 years and punishes him for what he did to him back then. But does he really? For a large part of the film, it is not really clear what Edgerton's exact role and motivation is. Is he just a harmless weirdo or a dangerous threat? It is all about the video we see and if he does not do what Bateman's character thinks then you could even make an argument for Bateman's character being the real villain in here. The two male protagonists are both somehow perpetrator and victim at the same time and everybody who had struggles with bullying and being accepted in his life may have sympathies with Edgerton's character here. I personally think he nails the character and so do his two co-leads. The only reason why I do not give this one an even higher rating is the script which lacked a bit for me on some occasions and I also feel it may have been a better, more essential watch without some of the scenes and at 95 minutes max. Then again, maybe Edgerton would have cut the best scenes and it would have hurt the film even more. It is pretty fine the way it is and even if I criticized the film a bit, I must still say these over 100 minutes flew by and this should not be taken for granted. I also liked that he did nothing to Hall's character at the hospital as these two always seemed to have a respectable relationship, even if she may have been creeped out by him, even if he may have done something to her earlier. We will never find out. But in terms of the story, it better fits if he didn't, even if it was never his intention to hurt her, only to hurt Bateman's character. As a whole, I certainly recommend this film to people who love tense psychological thrillers as, to that regard, you will not find many superior films from 2015. Go see it!
This is the story of a man who was a school mate of another man and enters the other man's life after 20 years and punishes him for what he did to him back then. But does he really? For a large part of the film, it is not really clear what Edgerton's exact role and motivation is. Is he just a harmless weirdo or a dangerous threat? It is all about the video we see and if he does not do what Bateman's character thinks then you could even make an argument for Bateman's character being the real villain in here. The two male protagonists are both somehow perpetrator and victim at the same time and everybody who had struggles with bullying and being accepted in his life may have sympathies with Edgerton's character here. I personally think he nails the character and so do his two co-leads. The only reason why I do not give this one an even higher rating is the script which lacked a bit for me on some occasions and I also feel it may have been a better, more essential watch without some of the scenes and at 95 minutes max. Then again, maybe Edgerton would have cut the best scenes and it would have hurt the film even more. It is pretty fine the way it is and even if I criticized the film a bit, I must still say these over 100 minutes flew by and this should not be taken for granted. I also liked that he did nothing to Hall's character at the hospital as these two always seemed to have a respectable relationship, even if she may have been creeped out by him, even if he may have done something to her earlier. We will never find out. But in terms of the story, it better fits if he didn't, even if it was never his intention to hurt her, only to hurt Bateman's character. As a whole, I certainly recommend this film to people who love tense psychological thrillers as, to that regard, you will not find many superior films from 2015. Go see it!