‘The Gift’ Trailer: Joel Edgerton’s Directorial Debut Is Very ‘Single White Male’
Like many actors before him, Joel Edgerton is adding “director” to his resume. First up: The Gift, a psychological thriller produced by horror heavyweights Blumhouse Productions, starring Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall as a nice, normal couple living a nice life in their nice new house (so nice!), until an old high school classmate gets a little too attached.
The first trailer for The Gift gives us that classic gift of seemingly laying out the entire film in just under three minutes, leaving little to the imagination — it’s like the male version of Single White Female. It’s also admittedly a little silly, mostly because Edgerton’s character is named Gordo, and there’s something particularly funny about hearing Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall hold serious, fretting conversations in which they repeatedly use that name. Gordo just doesn’t sound like the name of a threatening person. He sounds like a helpful handyman or food truck operator.
At least the official synopsis hints at some secrets (or at least one, anyway) left to be revealed in the full film:
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?
The Gift will arrive in theaters on July 31.