The Gift (2015)

Being a) the shortest boy in my class in my early years; b) the smartest; and c) adopted by parents of mixed ethnicity (which was a rarity in my small city at that time, the mid 70's), I was a natural target for bullies. At every conceivable instance (and a lot of inconceivable ones as well!), I fought all comers, often coming home black-and-blue, and exhausted--I may have lost some matches to bigger and older boys, but if they were going to win, they were at least going to pay for it, and feel the after-effects for a while. (Thankfully this ended when I was talking with my friend, who was carrying home his personal baseball equipment, when I was approached. I asked if I could borrow his bat for a second, and that ended that. I wouldn't recommend that as a solution to others, for legal reasons. Thankfully the bully's mom and mine were friends, and when he ran home crying and told her what happened, she replied, 'If Billy did that to you, then you deserved it.')
I don't often do so, but I watched the DVD extras before I watched the film (I usually wait until afterwards). Edgerton's impressive directorial debut here, as well as script, fulfilled (at least to my eyes) his purpose, that of making a psychological thriller along the level of his directing idols, Sir Alfred Hitchcock and David Fincher. The three main stars, Edgerton, Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall (I kept thinking she was Anne Hathaway!), did very good work here. I never really went for Bateman's work when he was younger, but a good friend often watched 'Arrested Development' when I was over, a few years back, and I have grown to like his acting, but he really hits it out of the park here. Had this not been an independent production but a more big-budget affair (i.e., David Fincher), I think he could have gotten an Oscar nomination--he's THAT good here.
There was the occasional logical issue I had with the film afterwards, when I stopped and REALLY thought hard about it, but I have no problem with that kind of thing, if I enjoy everything else (which I did). Highly recommended. Definitely worth buying and rewatching--and I can't say that about most films made today. I hope that Edgerton doesn't give up acting, because he's definitely good at it, but I hope he also keeps on writing scripts and directing. Simply based on 'The Gift', he has an admirer in me for life.

This film was good. The acting was good. It was well written and had good plot twists. It did get a bit too predictable and over-the-top by the end.
★★★