THE GIFT; A Professional Scotsman Review #2

SPOILER FREE Watch Trailer

I'd love to talk about the older film called The Gift - the Sam Raimi one with Keanu Reeves. My memory is that one is pretty bad. Sadly the new The Gift (The Gifts anyone?) is quite good. But hang on... there was also that Richard Kelly film The Box with Cameron Diaz where the titular box was a gift wasn't there? And The Grudge sounds a bit like The Gift doesn't it? So how about The Grudge Gives A Box As A Gift next? But I digress. This Gift had 93% on Rotten Tomatoes so I was intrigued.

The Gift is an old skool home invasion thriller updated for the... uh... what decade is this? Hang on... quick Google search... click... HAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh, wow. This decade is known as the 'teenies'!!! That's awful. Okay, so it's a late 80s/early 90s psycho thriller in the same vein as Fatal Attraction and Cape Fear except updated for the *sigh* teenies. So it's based on an incident... well, I won't say exactly, but it's a more topical issue instead of sexual misadventure which the 80s and 90s owned. It's directed by Joel Edgerton who also plays Gordo The Weirdo - very well, except for a dreadful dye job to make him look ginger. It's the worst thing about the movie, like, they haven't made him blonde first and THEN added the ginger dye on top. They've just slapped ginger dye on top of his black hair and it looks as if the guy is trying to dye his hair ginger which his character really wouldn't do. Is that a nit pick? Sure. But it always cracks me up when films that cost millions get stuff like that wrong. But what does it get right?

The acting is all round good. I like Jason Bateman - particularly after he delivered one of the best cameos of all time in the otherwise mince Smokin' Aces [Watch Here - keep you eyes peeled for Ben Affleck trying manfully not to crack up]. In fact Bateman could go on a mass murder spree and I'd still be like: "Yeah, I know it's awful... but he did that incredible cameo in the otherwise pedestrian Smokin' Aces. So, y'know... every cloud." Plus he does this thing where his voice goes all shaky and high when he gets upset which I found quite realistic almost as if he becomes a different person. And the female lead is an interesting, if vulnerable, role. It's the tall, elegant lassie from Frost/Nixon, Rebecca Hall. She's a very good actress and has the most nuance as a performer. The film looks great too. Crisply shot, slick gliding cameras and the jump scares, though few, are executed to perfection. Our entire theatre shrieked - then burst out laughing - it was brilliant. And when it's working in this classic mode it works very well. It's also slightly smarter than your average thriller and moves into fresher territory towards the end.

FINAL ANALYSIS: It's all a bit of a cliche but it does have a modern enough feel. The proof in the pudding for me was when I went to bed last night; basically the movie stuck with me. Obviously I didn't check under the bed or jump at every creaking noise in the dark because I'm hard as nails... but if I was a big pansy I'd have struggled to sleep. But I slept fine - *yaaawn* Oh, sorry, please excuse me. And of course when my old pal Baz left a fish bowl outside my door this morning with a card that said: "Let bygones be bygones" with a smiley face - I wasn't perturbed at all. Hang on, there's a knock on my door. I'll be right back...

SCORE: A SOLID 7. Workmanlike but thrilling.

ALTERNATE TITLE: The Gift (2000).