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Movie Review: The Gift

Nolafus

Aspiring something
5,724
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11
Years
With big blockbusters like Jurassic World, Minions, Ant-Man, and movies that people are cautiously waiting for like Fantastic 4 currently out in theaters, of course I went to see the psychological thriller no one has ever heard of. I actually didn't have any plans to go to the movies tonight, but hey, when someone offers a free ride somewhere, you take it. Well, unless they're offering candy. Now if someone really wanted to get people in their car, they'd offer free wifi instead of candy, and wow, I think this is a personal record for how quickly I got off track.

So I ride over to the theater in one of my roommate's candy (and wifi) free car, grab a "medium" soda with more soda in it than I drink in a week, and take my seat. Since the odds of someone hearing of this movie is probably the same as being offered free candy in the middle of summer, let me give a brief summary of the plot without spoiling too much.

A couple move into a new house where things seem normal at first, but then things start getting weird.

And that just about wraps it up. If it sounds pretty cliched, hold on, because this movie is just getting started. Actually, the beginning is the only part that follows the cliched horror movie. So if you can struggle through the first few minutes where you learn that the husband is starting a new job, the wife will stay at home, and all of the other character tropes Hollywood writers can't get enough of, then the rest of the movie will stray from the typical path, or at least try to.

So the couple is all moved in, and they're out shopping for their new place. The husband runs into an old high school classmate, and have the awkward conversation that always happens when you don't recognize the other person right away. They exchange numbers, and they part ways. A wine bottle appears on the doorstep of the new house one day, where they learn it's a gift from the old classmate, they invite him to dinner, and things slowly start to get out of hand. Gifts start to show up again and again, weird things start to happen, and that's all I'm going to say. All of this is revealed in the trailer, so don't worry, I didn't give away too much.

One thing I have to give credit for straight away is the movie's attempt to stray away from the old Hollywood cliches. It's not perfect, take the beginning for instance, but the writers really did put in an effort. This movie could have been so predictable, but it stopped itself from falling into that hole, and really made me wonder what was going to happen. So, good on them for trying.

One way they broke the mold was by giving characters actual backstories. The movie chooses to focus on the wife, which is an interesting choice. I thought that the most interesting story elements revolved around the husband, therefore he was the obvious choice to focus on. However, the wife knows about as much as the audience does, so instead of attempting to hide clues from the viewers, the movie is then allowed to take its time with the clues without dumping a lot of information at once. It works when watching the entire movie, but doesn't work in certain scenes.

The movie kind of hurts itself by choosing to focus on the wife as well. The wife has her own backstory, so some of the attention is dedicated to that and getting across those struggles, but the meat of the story revolves around the husband, so the backstory takes a back seat, and never really makes that heavy of an impact. The two stories don't intertwine much, so making them work together is going to be difficult. They do try, and it works for a little while, but by the end the main storyline is the entire focus with one throwback to the backstory, and I'm left wondering if the backstory was really necessary in the first place.

This movie is just lucky that the main storyline is really interesting. I can't give up too much, as psychological thrillers tend to rely on the lack of information aspect, but the character development, or lack there of, carries the movie well. It's slow to start, but once it does, it doesn't have much of a problem lifting the weight, and letting the audience experience the tension. I don't want to say much about it since it's what the movie does best, and ruining that would be a shame.

So all of the twists have been revealed, and now the audience is getting the last bit of information to tie it all together. This is what makes or breaks these types of movies, and this is the rare case where I say neither of those options apply. I've been trying to figure out what I don't like about the ending for a couple hours now, and I can't put my finger on it. Don't get me wrong, it's a decent ending, but it's not great. Nothing really stands out, and although everything is tied up in a neat little bow, you leave feeling okay. There's no lasting question to ponder, unbelievable twist to discuss with your friends, or anything that really stays with you. I feel like there was the potential to make something last, but the writers decided to play it safe and not take too much of a risk. Maybe there was a huge twist at the end, but no one could make it fit just right, so they settled for tying up all the loose ends. I'm not sure, maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong, but the ending is there, and not much more.

Don't get me wrong, it's a smart movie, but not as smart as it could have been. Looking back, I realize just how much thought was put into everything the characters say and do, as quite a few lines have some form of irony once you know everything. The writers knew they had an interesting concept, knew how to deliver it, but decided to play it safe. It doesn't hurt the movie, but it doesn't benefit it either.

Overall, I'll give The Gift a 8/10.

It's a good movie, but not a great one. You won't regret seeing this movie, as long as you like psychological horrors, but you won't be hopping in someone's van with free wifi to go to the store as soon as it's released.
 
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