DVD Review: Look and sound of ‘The Gift’ doesn’t disappoint

Joel Edgerton has been best known for several years as an actor in Australian films (including “The Square” and “Animal Kingdom”). Recently he received attention for his excellent performance as the corrupt FBI agent at the center of the recent “Black Mass”; his role was larger than Johnny Depp’s.

He’s written screenplays before (“The Square”), and now he’s made his feature directorial debut with “The Gift,” which he also wrote and in which he plays one of the three leads. To judge by the trailers and ads, it would be easy to assume that this is just another stalker film, where a stranger starts freaking out a suburban couple simply by appearing in a nonviolent way whenever they don’t expect him.

Indeed the first half of the film follows that pattern: for work reasons, Robyn (Rebecca Hall) and Simon (Jason Bateman) move back to Simon’s hometown where they unfortunately run into Gordo (Edgerton), an old school “friend” of Simon. He’s weird but polite and tries to do nice little things for them, greatly overstepping his bounds. Then about halfway through, we begin to get inklings that we — and Robyn — are missing a whole lot of crucial backstory. As we learn more, our sympathies begin to shift. The film is tightly written and directed, and all three stars are first rate.

The new Blu-ray looks fine and — more importantly, because Edgerton uses the sound design cleverly to yank our chains — sounds fine. The main extra is an intelligent and relaxed commentary track by Edgerton and editor Luke Dulan. We also get an alternate ending, which Edgerton correctly chose not to use. It doesn’t change the story; it just drives home things we already knew.

There are four other deleted scenes, with optional intros by the director; trailers; and two very short (three minutes total) “behind the scenes” promos.

The Gift (Universal Home Video, Blu-ray, $34.98; DVD, $29.98)