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User Reviews for: The Gift

tgrbabydoll
10/10  9 months ago
I vaguely remember the hype around the release of this movie, but from the ratings and other comments, you might think it was overhyped.

That being said, less than 20% of kids experience bullying and less than 5% experience extreme bullying. And YES, that means most kids follow a bully or are just thankful it isn't them. The ratings reflects that part of society that is the chiropractor Greg in this film. Friends with the bully that allow the bully to go too far. And for all the bullies that never get called on it? Well, just like in the film, they often just keep doing it just like the Simon character (Bateman) here does. Never ending.

It eludes to the wife enduring a lot of lies and why the new start in California, but I think it might have been better to open with more of what lead up to the move, so she could be a more sympathetic character. The drugs issue was clearly a bigger part of the move, but we never get to connect with her at that level. Multiple lines in the movie elude to her being just as much a victim of the bully as the other two her husband bullied.

But the rest, the idea that the bullied, in this case 2 of them, might react to being lied about and bullied basically in a more vengeful way than we see the bullied normally react, well, I think that accounts for the low score. A lot of bullies out there and even more of those Gregs out there who definitely wouldn't want to feel the wrath of vengeance the bullied might bare upon them if they look back at what they did or allowed to happen to others just to save their own skin.

Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hull and Joel Edgerton do phenomenal jobs. And the directing is great. Was it due the "scary" movie hype? No, but that was not what I saw in the trailer so I don't know what half these comments are claiming. It is a twisty thriller. No blood and guts, no secret bombs, no Freddie Krueger stuff. Just something very Orson Welles about it. You don't get the final answer, very Rosebud-esque. Was he, wasn't he? Fantastic story.

9.6/10. Again just felt like more could've been done with the wife's character in the lead up so her character was more sympathetic, but it stands without it well enough.
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