In an age of mega-blockbusters and star-studded dramas, it’s refreshing to see that some people are still wholly committed to middle-of-the-road thriller fare. Enter The Gift, the directorial debut of Animal Kingdom star Joel Edgerton, in which he stars as an unstable psychopath taking revenge on the guy (Jason Bateman) who bullied him back in high school.
The new trailer for the pic establishes an unsettling, edgy tone before segueing into actual footage from the flick, which finds Simon (Bateman) and his young wife Robyn (Rebecca Hall) tentatively reconnecting with Simon’s old classmate Gordo (Edgerton) before realizing there’s something very off about their new acquaintance.
No one’s expecting this flick to win any awards, but it looks like an appropriately tense thriller given the subject matter, albeit a somewhat silly one.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Can you really go through life having never wronged anyone? Even if you are unaware of how, or when, and even who you may have wronged….chances are there is someone out there who won’t ever forget it…or you.
Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall) are a young married couple whose life is going just as planned until a chance encounter with an acquaintance from Simon’s high school sends their world into a harrowing tailspin. Simon doesn’t recognize Gordo (Joel Edgerton) at first, but after a seemingly coincidental series of encounters proves troubling, a horrifying secret from their past is uncovered after nearly 20 years. As Robyn learns the unsettling truth about what happened between Simon and Gordo, she starts to question: how well do we really know the people closest to us, and are past bygones ever really bygones?
From the producer of Whiplash and The Purge, Jason Blum, comes a chilling psychological thriller that marks the feature directorial debut of acclaimed actor and writer Joel Edgerton (The Great Gatsby, Zero Dark Thirty, Warrior).
STX Entertainment is delivering The Gift to theaters on August 7.
