The Gift review: Rebecca Hall, Jason Bateman star in a small film with big scares

Joel Edgerton’s The Gift could easily be called Badlapur 2. There is revenge, suspense as well as that rare, delightful element: an unexpected 360-degree turnaround. On the surface, it’s a simple story about a perfect life that goes wrong. Dig deeper and a metaphor about corporate life emerges. Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall) are a yuppie couple who relocate from Chicago to a Los Angeles suburb. They and their dog move into a lovely house with glass walls, where the neighbours are nice and the setting is pretty. Simon has a great job and is all set to get top post and the bigger cabin that comes with it. Robyn is an interior designer, currently on break after a miscarriage and happily looking after their dog while hoping to become a mother again. [caption id=“attachment_2401924” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A still from The Gift.[/caption] As a director and writer, Edgerton does not waste any time. The Gift quickly jumps to the event that is about to turn Simon and Robyn’s dream life into a nightmare. The script has all the finesse and thrill of a deadly Jeffery Deaver story. Soon after Simon and Robyn move to their new home, Simon’s old schoolmate, Gordo (Edgerton) shows up in the couple’s neighbourhood. The meeting between Gordo and Simon is brief and awkwardly formal. Gordo looks shy yet keen on renewing an old friendship – a friendship that Simon can scarcely remember. Soon Gordo’s gifts start showing up at Simon and Robyn’s door. Simon calls him “Gordo, the weirdo”. He takes advantage of Robyn’s politeness and makes himself comfortable as her dinner guest. By the time Gordo sends the couple an invitation to dinner at his place, everyone in the film and the audience knows there’s something murky and ominous going on here. When the dinner does happen, the scares come in full form. One notable moment in the car is a great example of how an undercurrent of violence can make the stomach churn more effectively than an act of violence. The atmospheric sense of something bad about to happen, shifts into slick action mode when a mysterious school past is raked up. “You think you’re done with past but the past isn’t done with you,” says Gordo. Revealing anything more would be a spoiler (as are the giveaways in the promo. Don’t watch it). The three lead actors slip into shared chemistry with utmost ease. Nothing is really spelt out yet every time Gordo shows up, it gets spookier. Edgerton uses the long silences, slow camera moves and abrupt sounds brilliantly. Anytime Robyn is alone, you start feeling her uneasiness. As a first-time director, Edgerton smartly relies upon old techniques that are tried and tested devices to build up fear, like the Hitchcockian shower scene. The idea of mysterious gifts, including a final one in the climax, is a great extension of The Usual Suspects. When a small and relatively low-key thriller takes you by surprise and actually makes a major statement on losers, it’s like winning an unexpected lottery.