Worst Movies of 2015

The main problem I had with the ending of The Gift is that, in short, it undercut what had come before. Up until then the film had proved a decent thriller (if not as amazing as I'd been led to believe) that worked well based on the interplay between its characters and the unpredictable weirdness of Joel Edgerton's character, but as it got closer and closer to its conclusion the film started to paint itself into a corner and it started to get a bit desperate as it tried to resolve itself, namely by forgoing the ambiguous menace of Edgerton by having him launch a flat-out revenge plot that involved taunting Jason Bateman's character by implying that he raped and possibly impregnated Rebecca Hall's character. Even its attempt to keep things ambiguous in the light of such a revelation by making it so that Bateman will apparently never know for sure what had happened because he can't trust Edgerton one way or the other just rings hollow and just feels awfully anti-climatic compared to what the film had built up in the previous two acts.

That being said, I'm not sure how it "should" have ended. It's obvious enough that the film is supposed to end with Bateman being "punished" for apparnetly ruining Edgerton's life, but as for how it could have done that better...I'll get back to you on that.

The main problem I had with the ending of The Gift is that, in short, it undercut what had come before. Up until then the film had proved a decent thriller (if not as amazing as I'd been led to believe) that worked well based on the interplay between its characters and the unpredictable weirdness of Joel Edgerton's character, but as it got closer and closer to its conclusion the film started to paint itself into a corner and it started to get a bit desperate as it tried to resolve itself, namely by forgoing the ambiguous menace of Edgerton by having him launch a flat-out revenge plot that involved taunting Jason Bateman's character by implying that he raped and possibly impregnated Rebecca Hall's character. Even its attempt to keep things ambiguous in the light of such a revelation by making it so that Bateman will apparently never know for sure what had happened because he can't trust Edgerton one way or the other just rings hollow and just feels awfully anti-climatic compared to what the film had built up in the previous two acts.

That being said, I'm not sure how it "should" have ended. It's obvious enough that the film is supposed to end with Bateman being "punished" for apparnetly ruining Edgerton's life, but as for how it could have done that better...I'll get back to you on that.