“Everest”, “Grandma”, & “Z for Zachariah” – My Ratings

“Everest”

Plot Summary: Inspired by the incredible events surrounding a treacherous attempt to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain, "Everest" documents the awe-inspiring journey of two different expeditions challenged beyond their limits by one of the fiercest snowstorms ever encountered by mankind. Their mettle tested by the harshest of elements found on the planet, the climbers will face nearly impossible obstacles as a lifelong obsession becomes a breathtaking struggle for survival.

Comment: Great special effects and overall entertaining with a good first half providing smart details about the preparation and dangers of climbing the world’s tallest summit. Second half levels off to mostly a procedural film by watching systemically the climbers become exhausted, disoriented, struggling for breath, snow blindness, frostbite, swelling of the brain and death. Drama: STARRING: Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, Robin Wright, Michael Kelly, Sam Worthington, Keira Knightley, Emily Watson & Jake Gyllenhaal.

3 -1/4 Stars

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“Grandma”

Plot Summary: In "Grandma," Lily Tomlin is Elle Reid. Elle has just gotten through breaking up with her girlfriend when Elle’s granddaughter Sage unexpectedly shows up needing $600 bucks before sundown. Temporarily broke, Grandma Elle and Sage spend the day trying to get their hands on the cash as their unannounced visits to old friends and flames end up rattling skeletons and digging up secrets. Drama / Comedy: STARRING: Lily Tomlin, Judy Greer, Marcia Gay Harden and Sam Elliott.

Comment: Lily Tomlin deserves a Best Actress Nomination for her fine work here.

3 -1/2 Stars

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“Z for Zachariah”

Plot Summary: In the wake of a nuclear war, a young woman survives on her own, fearing she may actually be the proverbial last woman on earth, until she discovers the most astonishing sight of her life: another human being. A distraught scientist, he’s nearly been driven mad by radiation exposure and his desperate search for others. A fragile, imperative strand of trust connects them. But when a stranger enters the valley, their precarious bond begins to unravel. Drama: STARRING: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Chris Pine and Margot Robbie.

Comment: A decent story the first half that had a quick conclusion ending which I did not see coming and left me scratching my head.

3 Stars

Black Mass - Review

Black Mass - Review

The last time I recall seeing Johnny Depp portray a meaningful real life human being it was the story brought to the big screen by Director Michael Mann’s portrayal of the 1930’s notorious bank robbing criminal John Dillinger in the film “Public Enemy”. Now leap forward almost half a century and we find Depp taking on another real life gangster in Director’s Scott Cooper film about James Whitey Bulger; essentially a cold blooded criminal and also like Dillinger became equally famous enough to make it on to the FBI’s notorious “America’s Most Wanted” list.

 

The film starts out around 1975 in South Boston, Massachusetts where we find an ambitious FBI Agent named John Connolly (Joel Edgerton seen recently in “The Gift” and previously in “Zero Dark Thirty”). A local “Southey” kid who manages to escape the easy life of local crime in his neighborhood by working his way up to being a Special Agent with the Bureau. And because he has knowledge of that area of Boston he is transferred back to his home town to deal with the wanton murderous activities of the Italian Mob who is completely out of control with crime in the area.

 

Being so ambitious to succeed, one day Agent Connolly comes up with what sounds like on the surface an absolutely ludicrous idea of the FBI working with a former childhood acquaintance and Irish mobster named James "Whitey" Bulger (Johnny Depp). His idea? To have a working collaborative relationship with the FBI by having Bulger inform on his Italian mobster contacts and activities and therefore eliminating both a common enemy for the FBI and Bulger. The catch? Bulger has to stick to petty crimes and no killing anyone. Sounds reasonable enough. What can go wrong?

Of course as you can imagine nothing can come good of any alliance when the criminal enemy of my enemy is my friend. Still the Bureau higher ups give the OK to this unholy alliance, that not only is doomed to fail, it will definitely spiral out of control due to Connolly ever deepening involvement in covering up for Bulger’s sociopath violent pension to solve all of his problems impulsively with two in the back of the head of anyone who crosses him in the slightest.

 

PROS: Depp’s powerful performance is not only riveting, captivating and mesmerizing, he is charismatic and creepy as Bulger. He reminded me without fail that he is a “Marlon Brando-esque” superb actor of the highest order when he makes up his mind to really occupying the minds of meaningful, complex and thought provoking characters instead of his typical one dimensional efforts, albeit sometime funny, with those totally fictional characters like “Captain Jack Sparrow”. And yet in an odd way, while Depp is playing a real life man of flesh blood here, he in a metaphoric kind of way is telling the story of another fictional character aka Frankenstein, only with a gun. Make no mistake about it, Depp’s Bulger is a very evil man who will kill you and eat lunch seconds later without batting an eye.

Also make no mistake about this; Depp owns the screen; intoxicatingly so every single second and frame he is on. This is brilliant acting here.

CONS: Black Mass while overall is interesting to watch by learning the depths of the murderous activities that occurred from this screwed up alliance between Bulger, his Winter Hill Gang and the FBI, the films basic problem is that is all we learn. Bulger kills and the FBI looks the other way, over and over and over again, so much so to the point of almost making and showcasing this one plot point repeatedly well over half the entire 2 hour running time.

What was missing and I wished they had told some of this story, were all of the legal intricacies involved in this arrangement and also telling more of the story of Bulger’s decade’s long run of hiding in California. There is nothing at all about Bulger’s time hiding in plain sight as a fugitive, which for me would have added several more subplots that this film seem seriously lacking in its overall development.

Finally, I am a stickler for good writing and directing and it was obvious to me Black Mass had a couple seemingly poorly edited - not so thoroughly developed scenes where the principles would almost seem to be speaking in broken English. When you tell a person’s dramatic story sometimes you got to give them just a few more words to say so as to make it sound believable to the ear and not like someone rushing to get to the next scene.

CONCLUSION: In case you were wondering "Black Mass” means in Catholicism to be a travesty of the Roman Catholic Mass by the worshiping of Satan and or witches. Watching the film story of criminal James Bulger, being a devil worshiper would of seem mild compare to the cold bloody carnage he laid waste to his victims.

I enjoyed Black Mass and overall it holds up rather well for the entire film – you should see it. It gives a reasonable sense of just how mean a man Bulger was with good, well-executed and solid story telling. But the most significant thing you will remember is Johnny Depp. When he is on the screen every word, look, gaze, frown, growl, smirk and every brown tooth smile matters and means something; even when he utters not a single word.

Depp’s performance here is masterful and brings to life a man with a dead soul just as was the case with the fictional monster of Frankenstein, only in this case our South Boston monster “Franky” here, well he got a gun.

3 -1/2 Stars

10 Fall Films That Could Be Worth Seeing

10 Fall Films That Could Be Worth Seeing

These 10 films may not be Oscar contenders, but they all could be worth your time and money to see.

“Concussion” – Starring Will Smith tells the true story of Doctor Bennet Omalu who discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy CTE, the specific type of brain damage often suffered by football players – December 25^th 2015

“Grandma” – With strong early Oscar Buzz for her performance here, Lily Tomlin stars as Elle who has just gotten through breaking up with her girlfriend when Elle's granddaughter Sage unexpectedly shows up needing $600 bucks before sundown. Temporarily broke, Grandma Elle and Sage spend the day trying to get their hands on the cash as their unannounced visits to old friends and flames end up rattling skeletons and digging up secrets – Limited September 4^th 2015.

“Our Brand Is Crisis” -  Sandra Bullock, Anthony Mackie, Zoe Kazan, Ann Dowd, Scoot McNairy, Joaquim de Almeida and Billy Bob Thornton. In 2002, American-educated Bolivian politician Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada hires Washington, D.C. based James Carville's political consulting firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner to help him win the 2002 Bolivian presidential election – October 30^th 2015.

 “Pawn Sacrifice” - Tobey Maguire plays real life chess prodigy Bobby Fischer. Directed Edward Zwick “Glory” - September 18^th 2015.

“Rock the Kasbah” – Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Kate Hudson and Zooey Deschanel tells the story about a has-been rock manager Richie who takes his last remaining client on a USO tour of Afghanistan. When Richie finds himself in Kabul, abandoned, penniless and without his U.S. passport, he discovers a young Afghan girl with an extraordinary voice and manages her through Afghanistan's version of American Idol – October 23^rd 2015.

“Sicario” - Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro, and Emily Blunt tells the timely story of the drug war and law enforcement along the Mexico border - September 18^th, 2015.

“Sisters” – Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph tell the story of two sisters who throw a last party at their child hood house which their parents are about to sell – December 18, 2015.

“Spectre” - Daniel Craig as 007 James Bond and Christoph Waltz is the villain - Monica Bellucci is the bond girl. – November 6^th, 2015

“Spotlight” - Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, Mark Ruffalo, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, and Billy Crudup with director Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent, Win Wintels the true story  of the Boston Globe team that broke the story of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church - November 30^th, 2015

“The Intern” Anne Hathaway and Robert DeNiro where De Niro plays an elderly intern to his much younger corporate boss played by Hathaway – September 25^th, 2015.

30 Anticipated Films For The 2015 - 2016 Oscar Season

30 Anticipated Films For The 2015 - 2016 Oscar Season

It’s Sunday September 6^th 2015 Labor Day weekend and in Hollywood it’s about that time of year again when you start to hear the faint rumblings of the names of the highly anticipated films for possible Oscars nominations. Meaning what exactly? 

Well, it means that I have to put on my reliable prognostication Nostradamus thinking cap to gaze perilously into the future to pare down the long list to about 30 films and 3 wild card films that I think will offer something in the way of high quality storytelling, directing and acting, as well as having the potential of receiving most of the coveted Oscar nominations including possibly Best Picture nominations.

Note below:

Bold Black listed films are those I believe could get Best Picture Oscar Nominations.

* The note asterisks means they are true stories or are based on true events.

1.       45 Years -  A woman’s 45th wedding anniversary is disrupted when a letter arrives for her husband about a former lover’s body that is found in the icy glaciers of the Swiss Alps  - Charlotte Rampling

2.       *Black Mass - Gangster Whitey Bulger violent crimes in South Boston – Johnny Depp

3.       *Bridge of Spies – 1960 an American lawyer helps rescue a pilot detained in the Soviet Union – Tom Hanks - Director Steven Spielberg

4.      Brooklyn - 1950s Ireland & New York, a young woman has two men in two countries.

5.       By the Sea - 1970s France, former dancer and her husband travel the country together trying to salvage their marriage – Brad Pitt  - Angelina Jolie

6.       Carol - 1950s NY, a young female department-store clerk falls for an older married woman -  Cate Blanchett  - Rooney Mara

7.       *Everest - A climbing expedition on Mt. Everest is devastated by a severe snow storm – Jake Gyllenhaal

8.       *Freeheld - NJ police woman & her domestic partner battle to secure benefits when diagnosed with terminal cancer – Julianne Moore – Steve Carrell.

9.       *Genius - Max Perkins's time as book editor at Scribner that oversaw works by Thomas Wolfe, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald – Nicole Kidman – Jude Law - Colin Firth

10.    *I Saw the Light -  The biography of singer Hank Williams -Tom Hiddleston  

11.    In the Heart of the Sea – 1820 a whaling ship is preyed upon by a sperm whale stranding its crew at sea for 90 days – Directed by Ron Howard - Chris Hemsworth

12.   Inside Out – (Animation): A story of a young girl who is uprooted from her Midwest life to San Francisco while her inner emotions of "Joy", "Fear", "Anger", "Disgust" and "Sadness" conflict on how best to navigate her new life.

13.   *Joy - A family across four generations and the working woman who becomes founder of a powerful family business dynasty – Jennifer Lawrence - Bradley Cooper – Robert DeNiro - Director David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook & American Hustle)

14.    *Legend -The story of twins Reggie and Ronald Kray reign as the most notorious gangsters in British history  - Tom Hardy aka "Mad Max" (Hardy plays both brothers in the film)

15.    *Love and Mercy - Beach Boys Brian Wilson struggles with psychosis and a shady therapist – John Cusack – Elizabeth Banks

16.    Macbeth – Shakespeare’s story of the Duke of Scotland prophecy from witches that one day he will become King of Scotland – Michael Fassbender

17.    Mad Max: Fury Road - A woman rebels against a tyrannical ruler in post-apocalyptic Australia - Charlize Theron – Tom Hardy

18.    *Miles Ahead – The story of jazz trumpeter Miles Davis - Don Cheadle

19.    *Snowden -  CIA employee Edward Snowden leaks classified documents to the press -  Shailene Woodley – Scott East Wood – Director Oliver Stone (Platoon)

20.    Star Wars: The Force Awakens - You been in  a cave? This film is self-explanatory - Director J.J. Abrams (Star Trek films reboot). 

21.    *Steve Jobs - Follows the life and legacy of Apple’s Steve Jobs – Michael Fassbender - Director Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network)

22.   *Suffragette - The early feminist movement in Britain – Carey Mulligan – Meryl Streep

23.    *The Danish Girl - Artist Einar Wegener undergoes a sex-change operation in the early 1900s -  Eddie Redmayne (Last Years Best Actor Winner in "The Theory of Everything")

24.    The Hateful Eight - Post-Civil War Wyoming, bounty hunters seek shelter during a blizzard but get involved in a plot of betrayal and deception – Samuel Jackson – Kurt Russell - Director Quentin Taratino's 8th film 

25.    The Martian – An Astronaut is left on Mars after he is presumed dead – Matt Damon  - Jessica Chastain  Director Ridley Scott (Alien, Thelma & Louise, Black Hawk Down & Prometheus) 

26.   *The Revenant - In 1820s a frontiersman seeks vengeance against those who left him for dead after a bear mauling – Leonardo DiCaprio – Tom Hardy aka "Mad Max"

27.   *The Walk - Frenchman Philippe Petit's attempts to cross the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974 - Joseph Gordon Levitt - Director Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Castaway & Flight)  

28.    *Trumbo – 1940’s Hollywood screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo career comes to an end when blacklisted as a Communist -  Bryan Cranston

29.    *Truth – Story of news anchor Dan Rather during his final days at CBS News when he broadcast a false report about President Bush - Cate Blanchett – Robert Redford

30.    Youth - A retired orchestra conductor receives an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II to perform for Prince Philip's birthday – Michael Caine

3 Wild Card Films

                *Straight Outta Compton - Late 1980's - 1990's story of gangster rap group N.W.A.
                 Son of Saul - 1944 Auschwitz prisoner burns corpses while trying to save a boy
                 Anomalisa  - A man crippled emotionally by his mundane life 

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. – Review

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. – Review

In 1962 when actor Sean Connery took on the fictional character of Agent 007 James Bond and turned it into an international favorite of film fans, the television network NBC wasted very little time in seeing the opportunity to bringing the same type of spy espionage thriller to American family’s homes and their then black and white TV screens. They called the weekly series “The Man from U.N.C.L.E”.

From 1964 – 1967 the TV weekly premise was similar to the James Bond film plots of being both stylish, debonair and thrilling, with the only key exceptions being there were two spies partnered together. One was an American named Napoleon Solo and the other was Russian named Illya Kuryakin. And as with the James Bond missions, Solo and Kuryakin would trek around the world squashing evil and subversive cold war plots against democracy mostly in the form of their arch enemy “THRUSH”.  

Fast forward nearly 50 years and Director Guy Ritchie brings the weekly series to the big screen with the same title of “The Man from U.N.C.L.E”. with Henry Cavill ("Man of Steel") starring Solo and Armie Hammer ("The Social Network") as Kuryakin.

In the film adaptation this story centers on two agents putting aside longstanding hostilities to two team up on a joint mission to stop a mysterious international criminal organization, which is bent on destabilizing the fragile balance of power through the proliferation of nuclear weapons and technology. The duo's only lead is the daughter of a vanished German scientist, who is the key to infiltrating the criminal organization, and they must race against time to find him and prevent a worldwide catastrophe.

PROS: Director Guy Ritchie has made one of the sexiest, stylish and elegant films I have seen in a while. He has manage to spare no cost in having all of the male actors look simply dashing and GQ in every frame, as well as with the female cast who with their perfectly manicured looks, hair and dress could easily graced any magazine cover then or today. He also puts the right esthetic look to the backdrop of the film from the 1960’s with the look of the hotels, cars, boats, music, clothing, jewelry and street scenes. This film is impeccable looking from frame to frame throughout the entire film.

CONS: While the film looks great and stylish, its plot is as compelling as watching someone reading aloud an article in a GQ magazine for the 1:45 minutes running time. For it (the plot) has no real sense of urgency and no real spin tingling intrigue. And while the TV series did have a bit of a tongue and cheek humor aspect to it (as does this film), U.N.C.L.E the movie made the critical mistake of not creating an emotional connection with the characters and their job of being deliberately in the line of fire in the deadly craft of international espionage. The film looks pretty but it goes down flat.

CONCLUSION: In spite of its good pacing and several witty - funny scenes, “The Man from U.N.C.L.E”. while beautiful to watch feels slightly hollow, lethargic and disconnected and in the end somewhat tedious to watch. And though it was not hard to follow with some minimum interest to the plot overall, the film drags.

Still, because it looked good and held my attention minimally, I would say see it, but only after its free on your basic cable network in about 18 months. You won’t be bored, but you won’t be thrilled either.

3 Stars

Straight Outta Compton – Review

Straight Outta Compton – Review

The film “Straight Outta of Compton” tells the story of the group N.W.A. and in the year 1988 when they burst on to the scene as a groundbreaking new group that revolutionized the music industry and pop culture forever with its honest, aggressive and sometimes confrontational storytelling of their lives and experiences growing up in Compton CA.

And the impact? Well, they are acknowledge as being at the forefront of changing and influencing hip-hop music forever with N.W.A's first studio album titled "Straight Outta Compton," that created both huge popularity for their sound and equal controversy with its brutally honest depiction of life in Los Angeles. And with the guidance of their first manager Jerry Heller, N.W.A band members Ice Cube (O'Shea Jackson Jr.), Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), Eazy-E, DJ Yella and MC Ren navigate through the rough and tumble turns of the music industry, with the obvious results of fame, wealth, greed, jealousies, tragedies and ultimately a place in American music history.

PROS: At its core “Straight Outta of Compton” does four things exceptionally well as part of the film’s plot development. One, it tells the intricate individual personal stories of the young men who made up the band. Two, it tells the story of the creative process of their music through the prism of the rough urban life of some of most dangerous streets in America. Three it showcases through the back drop of how the music industry evolved to their original sounds and voice. And four it tells how their new brand of music dramatically changed pop culture forever while simultaneously igniting revolutionary political and cultural wars across the entire country.

CONS: Nothing

CONCLUSION: Unless you have been buried under a rock for the last 30 years you have at one time or another have both either heard the music of N.W.A. and or know they had a lasting cultural impact on music entertainment since their very first track was released. And with that it is not necessary for me to delve in to any particular aspects of the film story and key moments, you all probably know them already.

Also, while I will confess that I am not a fan of hip-hop rap music culture as a simple matter of personal appeal, I did truly admire the imaginative and forward thinking of the band members to strike out on their own path for a new sound that was not only successful, but created music that had the same honesty and sincerity as any famous poet. As with all generations, including my own when I was growing up with the sounds of Motown and Rock music of the 1960’s, all youth are drawn to telling their own personal stories either in the simple written word and or more often in the more memorable format of their music. Such is the same then with the members of N.W.A and that generation who bought their CDs and sang their lyrics out loud.

“Straight Outta of Compton” is very, very entertaining as it is filled with genuine charisma, visceral integrity and exhilarating energy. The acting is almost flawless in telling this unique story by capturing effectively the band member’s actual personalities, their actual physical looks and their mind set from beginning to end. But the film’s greatest strength is its honesty with the story itself, warts and all, without any overdue glamorization to their lives and or those circumstances for better or worse that defined who they were and became.

N.W.A and its story “Straight Outta of Compton” is a fabulous film to watch with not one single boring moment. It tells why their music mattered then and now, but it ultimately tells a uniquely American story of how these young men found through imagination their own path through their own Ellis Island to the American dream and American success by way of the streets of Compton, CA.

3 - 3/4 Stars

The Gift - Review

The Gift – Review

Melbourne Australian born actor Joel Edgerton is building up a resume of very solid work that in my estimation will garner him an Oscar nomination in the not too distant future. His previous works include the wider audience type fares of “Zero Dark Thirty” and “The Great Gatsby”, as well as two films soon to be released in 2015 with the first titled “Black Mass” that tells the true story of Boston gangster Whitey Bulger (Johnny Depp) and the second film in the Western genre starring Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor and Bradley Cooper in “Jane Got a Gun”. If you want to see him in something out of the norm that is both suspenseful and riveting I highly recommend you rent Edgerton’s acting and writing work in the independent films “Animal Kingdom” and the “The Square”. And it’s with this eclectic resume we see his latest effort, as well as Edgerton’s full range of stage craft skills as the star, director, producer and writer of the screenplay in the genuinely effective psychological thriller “The Gift”, starring Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall.

Early on in “The Gift” we see a young married couple named Simon (Bateman) and Robyn (Hall) whose life is going just as planned as Simon has taken a new job in sunny California. In very short order they have a totally chance encounter with an acquaintance of Simon's from high school and as to be expected with people’s appearances changing from the way you last remember them Simon doesn't initially recognize his former class mate named Gordo. But it’s after their meeting in the mall that Gordo, under the guise of being friendly and neighborly, finds out where the couple’s new home is and begins to show up uninvited to their door. When neither of them are there Gordo leaves a series of mysterious gifts for them to find that over time begins to feel and prove to be very troubling.

After something really strange happens one evening, Simon approaches Gordo to directly demand he stop coming by their home. But it’s from this confrontation we soon discover that both Simon and Gordo share much more in their past than being classmates 20 years ago with Robyn becoming increasingly suspicious of what exactly happen in their past between her loving husband and this stranger that Simon refers to from his high school nickname as “Gordo the Wierdo”.     

PROS: The first hour is simply brilliant as we see an Alfred Hitchcock-ian type execution of a story delivered in very subtle layers filled with titillating drama and unnerving anticipation from scene to the very next. In fact there were two specific instances in “The Gift” where large sections of the viewing audiences in the theater let out very loud screams in the anticipation of something bad was about to happen. Not for me of course as I know when I being set up for something like that.  

Also, the first hour does a good job in not revealing its key plot point until much later and therefore I was constantly guessing as to what subtle clues to that plot was I being given in either some seemingly benign throw away conversations and or some hidden symbolisms that could help me along as to why Gordo was intent on entering Simon and Robyn lives. I got nothing and that was a good thing.

CONS: The second hour flattens out just a tad from its previous effective climb. My guess the transition in the writing got stretch a little thin mostly by the sudden change in some of the characters initially straight forward personalities. But it is probably more of my own hang ups about the story earlier effectiveness and in the end not a real criticism of the overall story telling of human intrigue. And while this change never hurts the films approach to some hidden “secrets” which are at the core to the films story, it just seemed for me the transition could have been done just a little smoother.

CONCLUSION: “The Gift” is about trust. Who do you trust, what do you trust and how do you go about trusting. And when you mix a secret with the lies to cover it up, you end up with a story and a film with real human life and death like tension when people betray that trust.

“The Gift “is dark, at times very creepy, chilling, and direct and a very much focused film. Overall nothing in this movie is a cheap salacious effort to entertain you as you feel the circumstance that have drawn these people together are real and contemporarily meaningful. Director Edgerton makes really good use of camera angles, night time darkness, shadowy movement, faded images, bumps in the wall and moments of prolong silence as effective moments of real fear as I have seen in a film in some time. And while you are watching this you know you are being totally manipulated each step of the way and yet you can neither figure out how nor do you care as to why, as it felt every 15 minutes of this 1:45 minute film we are dealt a new surprise after another to its very smart and unanticipated conclusion.

Joel Edgerton has a gift for patience which I like in a good Director as well as his appreciation for taking old time drama stories and placing them in contemporary packaging. He understand the range of human emotions and uses them as a landscape to telling a good story without any gimmicks, car chases, explosions or cheap sex scenes.

Some have referred to “The Gift” as this generation’s modern take on the game changing film “Fatal Attraction” only this time for men, well it’s not that at all. But what it is, is a film that will make you think about life overall and especially about the past. It will scare you a bit as you unwillingly but consciously contemplate something you may have consequentially done in your past that may come back to rear its ugly head 20 years later. But above all “The Gift’ dives head on into that emotionally unpredictable door of what torment is like when it is in the form of a lifelong journey of betrayal, which in the end irreparably damages the most important of human qualities we should value above all the rest; “Trust”.

3 – 3/4 Stars