The Gift review – a sly thriller of social transgressions
In an impressive and unnerving directing debut, Joel Edgerton applies the same quiet assurance and attention to detail he’s displayed in his acting projects
Mike McCahill
Thursday 6 August 2015 21.00 BST
T
he actor Joel Edgerton’s directorial debut is a tremendously sly, insinuating thriller that pushes the social transgressions of cult favourites The Cable Guy and Chuck & Buck into subtler, more shaded territory. Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall play Simon and Robyn, an upwardly mobile LA couple settling into their new modernist home in the Hills when the dishevelled Gordo (Edgerton), a long-forgotten classmate of Simon’s, shows up – and keeps showing up, leaving increasingly extravagant housewarming presents, from window cleaner to koi carp, on their doorstep.
