The Gift

Australian actor Joel Edgerton wrote, produced and directed this drama with thriller elements,. Rebecca Hall and Jason Bateman star as a married couple newly moved to Los Angeles. They run into a old high school classmate of Bateman's (Edgerton) who seems desperate to restart a friendship that Bateman can't remember them having. Hall begins to suspect that something isn't right with Edgerton and that her husband isn't telling the whole truth about their past.

This has all of the trappings of one of those late-80's "yuppie nightmare" thrillers that glutted the market for about eight years, with the upscale settings and work environments of the characters getting upset by a malignant outside force, a situation that draws the worst out of the victims. Bateman is clever casting, as he's one of the best actors in his age range at portraying borderline nice-at-heart-or-really-a-jerk characters, which here keeps the audience guessing. Edgerton is normally a very physical actor, but here he's reserved and quiet. Hall is very good as the woman at the center of this odd dynamic, and she has her own past issues to deal with. I think audiences going into this expecting a rollercoaster-ride thriller will be disappointed, and while I don't want to spoil where things go, I think it's advisable to let viewers know that this is more of a moralistic drama than a jump-scare chiller.