Boston Globe August 6, 2015 [An] expertly crafted exercise in guilt, ambiguity and revenge.
More than anything, Edgerton’s script and direction demonstrate a keen understanding of tension and what puts an audience on edge.
Daily Telegraph August 6, 2015 The Gift is categorically not the film you first think it’s going to be, but it has fun teasing you with the prospect.
It’s a confident thriller suffused with dread that builds suspense without breaking until it’s too late to turn back – with a...
Edgerton isn’t above a hoary jump scare or two, but he otherwise tackles his Cape Fear premise with a degree of technical and drama...
Edgerton’s talent as an actor has been evident for a while, but The Gift announces him as a genuine triple threat.
It concludes with one of the most repugnant turns this side of a '60s-era exploitation "roughie," a "twist" so vile it pretty much c...
The violence is always emotional and psychological, not bloody and physical, which makes The Gift that much more disconcerting.
Irish Times June 14, 2017 There are promising moments here, but The Gift is too on-the-nose to convince as a fully formed feature. A commendable effort, nonetheless.
Grantland August 13, 2015 Officially, this is a blank-from-hell movie. But Edgerton has remixed the formula.
Quibbles about the ending aside, The Gift deserves to be ranked among such films as Bill Paxton’s underrated Southern gothic thriller Frailty.
Times (UK) August 6, 2015 It’s a taut psychological thriller that serves up a series of sickening jolts and a queasy sense of menace.
Independent August 6, 2015 What makes one child persecute another? Do bullies really change as they grow older? It is while exploring these questions that the film is at its...
A disturbing drama that twists its outsider-from-hell story into something more unique and unexpected than its marketing campaign might imply.
Nothing here feels cheap or hasty, which is why the horror, when it comes, is all the more chilling and grim. Slick, sharp and terrifying, "The&nbs...
One of the many gifts conferred by The Gift is the unaccustomed pleasure of feeling like putty in the hands of a first-rate storyteller.
Detroit News August 7, 2015 It touches on notions of trust, the male ego and forgiveness, but Edgerton doesn’t overturn any new stones.
Toronto Star August 6, 2015 This indie pulse-raiser is more of a stealth shocker than an overt one, even if the twisted payoff is telegraphed to anyone paying attention.
The Guardian August 6, 2015 The growing mismatch between polished exteriors and unravelling interiors provides a field day for the actors.
Chicago Reader August 6, 2015 Edgerton – who also wrote The Square and the story for The Rover – exploits Bateman’s smarty-pants persona to chilling effect; he&r...
San Diego Reader August 20, 2015 The Gift chillingly illustrates what happens when fate reunites a class bully (Jason Bateman) with his prize victim, Gordo (Edgerton).
A satisfying directorial debut from writer, producer and actor Joel Edgerton.
New York Post August 6, 2015 A dark and ultimately quite nasty psychological thriller from actor/writer/debut director Joel Edgerton, who manages to yank the carpet out from un...
Joel Edgerton’s feature-length directorial debut is a pleasant – or pleasantly unpleasant – surprise, hitting its genre marks...
The Gift starts out like so many other thrillers before it – with an attractive, well-to-do couple purchasing a big new house – and...
New York Times August 6, 2015 Underneath it all, "The Gift" is a merciless critique of an amoral corporate culture in which the ends justify the means, and lying and c...
"The Gift" stretches things a little too much for it to be a first-rate thriller. Still, among second-rate thrillers, it’s one of t...
Edgerton seems to have pulled "The Gift" right out of a time capsule from 1992.
Chicago Tribune August 6, 2015 At heart this is a three-character chamber piece. And Bateman, Hall and Edgerton are three very interesting actors showcased in a confide...
Globe and Mail August 7, 2015 Edgerton’s touch as a director and writer is fluid – he eerily holds our attention, like Hitchcock holds a door for Tippi Hedren.
[An] unexpected, unpredictable and profoundly unnerving psychological thriller …
Mirroring the seeming randomness of the universe, The Gift is borderline sublime in its ability to both confound expectations and fuel nightmares...
Slant Magazine August 4, 2015 Joel Edgerton’s boilerplate direction is a blessing for a genre increasingly saddled with literal visualizations of madness.
A coolly unsettling thriller that begins as an unironic homage to late-'80s/early-'90s yuppies-in-peril dramas… before taking a turn toward th...
The Guardian August 9, 2015 Of all Blumhouse’s productions, this is the one that really deserved to be called Insidious.
Toronto Sun August 7, 2015 Edgerton not only wrote the movie but makes an impressive directorial debut with the ripe-for-discussion subject matter of bullying and its after-e...
ScreenCrush August 3, 2015 [The Gift] repeatedly subverts viewers' expectations.
RogerEbert.com August 7, 2015 "The Gift" uses the tricks of the thriller trade well, but why it really works is that it withholds the necessary information until almost the...
buzzfeed.com November 10, 2015 It’s a concept that’s more often the basis of arrested development comedies about late bloomers who finally come into their own, b...
