The Gift

I read good reviews online and we watched this flick on Friday night. I knew the movie was a thriller of some kind but didn't know if it was a ghost movie or not. 

The flick stars Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall and Joel Edgerton. It has been written, produced and directed by Edgerton. 

The scariest part about the movie were the bunch of girls in the theater who would scream in anticipation of the action that never really happens. 
This is supposed to be a psychological thriller- whatever that means. 


Simon Callen (Jason) and Robyn Callen (Rebecca) are married and moving to LA from Chicago. Simon has switched jobs and they buy a nice glass house in the suburbs. Robyn is dealing with some health issues but they are never really spelled out. She has had a miscarriage before and is trying to have a baby. 
They bump into Simon's classmate Gordo (Joel) from school at a store. Gordo starts dropping by to their house when Robyn is alone and even leaves thoughtful gifts for them. Robyn does not mind but Simon is bothered by it. When they are invited for dinner at his house, Simon asks him to leave them alone. That is when creepy things start happening- someone poisons their fish, their dog goes missing etc etc etc. Robyn also finds out stuff about Simon's past which leaves her disgusted. The end is kind of weird. 

The problem with the movie is that you are not really sure if Gordo is the one doing these weird things or is it all in Robyn's head. If Edgerton had shown Gordo as the one actually harassing them, it would have been creepier. I would have liked the movie more if it was all in Robyn's head and Gordo was just a creepy but nice guy. 

As things stand, we walked out wondering what the hell just happened. If the same movie was made in Bollywood we would have trashed it but since it is Hollywood and audience's taste levels are mediocre it has good ratings online.