The Gift 2015

      Simon and Robyn are a married couple who have moved from Chicago to a Los Angeles suburb.  They were living in a condo but now they have a big house.  Simon has received a promotion, Robyn is staying home for a while and she is a freelance designer.  Simon and Robyn are in a home furnishings store and Simon runs into an old friend from high school.  Gordo gets their phone number and he comes to their house.  He stays for dinner and then he invites them to his house for dinner.  He lives in a big house and he says he is getting a divorce.  He says he has two children so it’s particularly difficult.  Simon tells Gordo friendship between them is not working out.  Robyn starts having trouble sleeping, the fish that Gordo gave them for their pond die and their dog is missing.  They call the police but they need solid information and a warrant to search Gordo’s home.  It turns out he invited them to the home of a couple who were on vacation and he was returning a car.  He was working as a chauffeur and had the keys to their house.  Simon doesn’t want to talk about the past but Robyn is growing more and more uneasy.

      As things progress in their new life Robyn is not sure she really knows her husband at all and he seems to switch moods quickly.  She begins to be constantly afraid at their home, the one place she should feel secure.  The house has too many large windows and Gordo could be outside at any moment and at any time?  Simon isn’t helping anything because he wants to leave everything about the past in the past.  I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck start to stand up and there were many times I wondered what was going to happen next?  Is a lot of this in Robyn’s imagination?  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

108 min, Mystery directed by Joel Edgerton with Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel Edgerton, Allison Toman, Tim Griffin, Busy Philipps, Adam Lazarre-White, Beau Knapp, Wendell Pierce, Mirrah Foulkes, Nash Edgerton.

Note:  Imdb 7.1 out of 10, 93% critic 76% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3*, Amazon 3.7* out of 5* with 952 reviews.

Special Note:  This movie was filmed in different locations in Southern California.  Jason Bateman, Wendell Pierce and P.J. Byrne worked together on Horrible Bosses of 2011.