Saturday, November 07, 2015

The Gift

 (2015)****

Simon and Robyn, a young married couple move to an LA suburb for work related reasons. Soon after they have a chance encounter with Gordo, a former classmate of Simon's who he claims not to remember. Gordo, strange but exceedingly nice, wedges himself into their lives. Robyn begins feeling uncomfortable with Gordo's pop in visits and thinks there is more to the story. She begins digging into her husband's past only to find he may not be quite the man she thought he was, he was and still is pretty much a colossal jerk.


This is a slow building intense film. I can imagine former teen tormentors squirming in their seats as Gordo's plan for revenge slowly unfolds. It's masterfully done and the final reveal is shockingly harsh. Jason Bateman who generally plays a nice guy in films does a great job channeling his inner asshole, he evokes sympathy for Gordo which wasn't an easy task since Gordo's weirdness made me feel uncomfortable every time he was on screen. In the quest for a good PITA (pipe in the ass) ole Gordo sticks it in and breaks it off leaving the viewer wrestling with a conflicting range of emotions feeling both sympathy and anger toward both characters.

4 comments:

DKC said...

I was wondering about this one when it came out. Nice to see it delivered.

JPX said...

I have been very curious about this one. I don't generally like movies where one person is bullying/torturing another but it sounds like this one has a good pay off...

Octopunk said...

I saw a trailer for this. Yeah, it has that guy-who-won't-stop-coming-over-nightmare-stalker thing going on. Not my favorite either, but if the "victim" is actually the bully...

AC said...

I'm intrigued by Jason Bateman playing an asshole.

Malevolent

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