YMMV / The Gift (2015)

• Anvilicious: Be careful how you treat people, because even something you don't think much of in the moment can destroy someone's life.
• Jerkass Woobie: Gordo. When he and Simon were in the same high school, Simon started a rumor that he and his friend Greg had found Gordo getting molested in a car by an older kid, and that Gordo was actually gay. This spiraled out of control until he was regularly getting bullied and beaten, eventually forcing him to move away. His father also started beating him when he heard the rumor, and at one point tried to burn him alive. Despite this, when Gordo is an adult, he honestly tries reconnecting with Simon, but he soon learns that Simon still mocks him behind his back despite his friendly behavior. It's only after Simon openly turns away Gordo's attempt at letting bygones be bygones that Gordo puts the plan to ruin Simon's life into effect.
• Magnificent Bastard: Gordon "Gordo" Moseley was a troubled youth horrendously bullied by Simon Callum during high school. Upon learning that Simon still mocks him behind his back in present day, Gordo enacts a complex plan to get back at him. Tapping into Simon's sound system so he could hear his every move, Gordo orchestrates several break-ins at his house, and gives Simon a video of Gordo next to his wife Robyn. When Simon demands to know if Gordo had sex with Robyn, Gordo doesn't confirm or deny the fact, causing Simon to rush to the hospital where he is met with scorn from Robyn, whom Gordo had told about Simon's bullying. With Simon breaking down after losing his job (after his rival for it reveals Simon's deceptions) and wife, Gordo watches from afar before walking away, completely satisfied that he ruined Simon's life similar to how Simon ruined his own.
• Moral Event Horizon: Only possibly so. If Gordo really did drug and rape Robin, impregnating her in the process, then its hard to feel sympathetic for him, even if Simon is a bully who deserved his comeuppance. His other crimes, like breaking and entering the Callum residence or sneaking into his ex-employer's house to pretend its his own for one night can arguably be excused as the actions of a socially and mentally maladjusted man, and were neither violent nor sexual in nature. Ultimately, whether or not Gordo crossed the horizon is up to the viewer's interpretation.
  • An alternate ending on the DVD release shows that after laying down next to her, Gordo merely sat and watched her sleep. Edgerton cut the scene because he felt it explained too much and wanted to be more ambiguous. In this ending, it's hard to not sympathize with Gordo; while he undoubtedly committed morally questionable actions (trespassing, sedating someone against their will, etc.) his crimes are tame compared to Simon's, whose fate comes across as deserved given what a cruel, egotistical bully he has been revealed as.
  • Simon arguably crossed it even before the events of the movie when he started a rumour about Gordo that nearly resulted in the latter's father trying to murder him...and then couldn't ever work up the decency to apologise. And though Word of God states that Gordo didn't rape Robyn, he potentially crosses it as soon as he decides to drag her (an innocent) into the plan to destroy Simon's life in the form of an Unwitting Pawn.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The move seems to play the conflict as if it's Grey-and-Gray Morality, while the ending is arguably more Evil Versus Evil. Gordo may or may not have raped Robyn, and Simon is more concerned about the paternity of his child than the rape of his wife.
  • There's also a throwaway line that reveals that Gordo was kicked out of the Army when he broke into a house and tried to abduct a minor. Had this event, which was entirely Gordo's own fault, not happened, he likely would have been able to live out his life in something resembling peace.
  • In fact, whether Gordo raped Robyn or not, the fact remains that he stalked the pair, indulged in a fair bit of Gaslighting, and broke into their house and drugged her. Not to mention the potential future trauma to Robyn or the child if either of them ever see the DVD.
• The Woobie: Robyn is especially this as the film goes on. At first she's your typical happy and supportive wife to Simon, and things start to go downhill for her as soon as Gordo appears. Due to Gordo's reappearing in his life, Simon's unpleasant nature begins to reveal itself as he becomes more of a bully not only to Gordo but to his wife. Not only that, Robyn becomes an unwilling pawn to Gordo's plan in ruining Simon's reputation, with her passing out in her own home at one point being video recorded by Gordo to be used as a weapon against Simon to fill his head with the horrific idea that she may, or may not, have been raped by Gordo while she was drugged by him. Ultimately, Robyn is a good person who is stuck between two guys at war with each other due to their past relations, and suffers the most because of it.
  • It's even worse than that, since she was The Woobie even BEFORE the film begins. Even though Robyn acts like a typical happy and supportive wife at first, it's eventually revealed to be a façade to hide the trauma of her miscarriage back in Chicago, for which she became depressed and required psychological therapy. At one point, she is seen stealing anti-depressants from her neighbors for her own use, which Simon chides her for when he learns about it. Gordo's revenge and Simon revealing his true colors only served to compound her already fragile state of mind. Honestly, you really want her to finally be happy with her newborn son by the end of the film.

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