Here are review links for this film submitted by our members:
- Dragan Antulov @ FAK.hr [Croatian]
- Excerpt: Rijec je o ostvarenju koje funkcionira ne samo kao solidni trilercic napravljen s više vještine nego vecina današnjih holivudskih žanrovskih proizvoda, nego i kao prilika da se uživa u necijim talentima kojih publika dosad nije bila svjesna.
- Jason Bailey @ Flavorwire
- Excerpt: It’s a well-crafted and efficient little domestic thriller, paced with an admirable deliberateness, acted with vulnerability and precision, executed with honest tension that results in a couple of big, knockout scares. And it concludes with one of the most repugnant turns this side of a ‘60s-era exploitation “roughie,” a “twist” so vile it pretty much cancels out the considerable skill and accomplishment of what’s preceded it.
- Nicholas Bell @ Ioncinema
- Robert Cashill @ Popdose
- Excerpt: Blu-ray review
- Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: The film begins, as its trailer insinuates, like a creepy stalker flick, but Edgerton continually throws out lures to hook then subvert audience expectations.
- Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
- Excerpt: The movie’s finale resolves everything by raising another, ultimately unanswered question, which would be a fascinating solution, if not for how repugnant that question is.
- James Jay Edwards @ FilmFracture
- Susan Grnger @ www.susangranger.com
- Excerpt: Electrifying thriller, delivering a timely, turbulent twist…
- Vadym Grygoriev @ kinoblog.com [Ukrainian]
- Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: What energizes the story is how Edgerton’s screenplay extracts tension from the unknown. That queasy feeling you get when things are a bit off kilter but you’re not really quite sure why.
- MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Descends into emotional idiocy and insufficient intrigue to end in a disgusting place that presumes that a woman is an appropriate pawn in games men play.
- Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: A slyly vicious fox when it could have been a Captain Obvious, and scarily plausible when it could have been preposterous, “The Gift” never cheats but decidedly fools the viewer when he or she thinks they have it all figured out.
- Kristin Dreyer Kramer @ NightsAndWeekends.com
- Don Lewis @ Flick Nation
- Dan Lybarger @ ArkansasOnline.com
- Excerpt: The Gift suggests anything Edgerton has to offer may be worth receiving.
- James Marsh @ South China Morning Post
- Excerpt: The directorial debut from Australian actor Joel Edgerton (Warrior, Exodus: Gods and Kings) twists an awkward encounter with an old high-school acquaintance into a cracking psychological thriller that offers some genuine surprises. Taking on the creepy role of socially awkward “Gordo the Weirdo” himself, while casting funny man Jason Bateman (Arrested Development, Horrible Bosses) as the over-achieving former school bully, Egerton manages to sneak a few surprises into The Gift’s efficiently wrapped package.
- Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Jason McKiernan @ Next Projection
- Excerpt: No one will fault Edgerton for having ideas and attempting to subvert conventions, but I will certainly fault him for derailing his narrative with a total mess of genre screenwriting tactics.
- Frank Ochieng @ SF Crowsnest
- Excerpt: However, the crafty Joel Edgerton, as the juggling movie mastermind sporting directing, acting and writing credits, provides the mind-bending goods in the refreshingly titillating ‘The Gift’, an edge-of-your-seat chiller that definitely is worth unwrapping with nervous anticipation.
- Jason Pirodsky @ Expats.cz
- Excerpt: It may not work as expected, but that can be a good thing. In the midst of a summer with few cinematic surprises, The Gift lives up to its title.
- Kristy Puchko @ Spinoff Online
- Excerpt: Edgerton has set up and incredibly suspenseful story that demands a gruesome conclusion. But how he chooses to get it is stupid and horribly insulting.
- Jonathan Richards @ www.jonrichardsplace.com
- Excerpt: Around the edges, the film sometimes feels unpolished, but at its core, the three stars keep it taut and nerve-wracking.
- Don Simpson @ Smells Like Screen Spirit
- Excerpt: The formalist presentation of The Gift is downright Hitchcockian, particularly with Edgerton’s uncanny grasp of visual clues and metaphors.
- Cole Smithey @ ColeSmithey.com
- Excerpt: Aside from a few gratuitously heavy-handed shocks, “The Gift” is an original thriller tied up with a thematic bow about how everyone reaps what he or she sows. Karma is everywhere you look.
- Jose Solis @ The Film Experience
- Frank Swietek @ One Guys Opinion
- Excerpt: An engrossing tale of long-buried secrets that finally bring retribution…cheekily suspenseful and unsettling right down to a satisfyingly twisted ending.
- Sarah Ward @ Concrete Playground
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