The Gift movie review

The Gift is a psycho-thriller that will give you the chills because it may happen in real life. The story is set on the couple Simon and Robyn(played by Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall) just moved in Simon's old neighborhood.

Photo courtesy of OctoArt Films

They were welcomed by Simon's classmate Gordo during his childhood that he haven't seen. Then he sense that there is something odd about Gordo. This psycho-thriller is something anyone can relate. It shows a scenario of bullies and the bullied.

What if you meet the bully who treated gave you hell decades later and it remind you of the pain you went to. Would you get even? According to socialist educator Paulo Freire, the oppressed has a tendency to become the oppressor. After being oppressed, he/she will overthrow the oppressor/s and take their place. It may also apply to the corrupt and the corrupted.

I use this movie as a reflection since I was also bullied. I was considered an outcast because I cannot relate to my classmates because either they are an elite achiever or a trouble-maker. I am something in between because I am too kind as other people say and weakly back then. I have no one to turn to because being kind and weak is different to them. I have no one to turn to even my teachers because I am outnumbered. The odds were one against the whole student population. At least I know I was raised right.

The church is also not spared with bullies which is ironic since this institution should help uplift the people. When I was forced to join a youth group, most of my school mates are also there. So the bullying continued even on a Sunday. All because of those status quo and groupings of those who clicked. Fortunately, I was not alone since there was one person I met there that stood by my side. Since then, this comrade-in-arms became my best friend.

I kept it to myself because being bullied made me strong in later years. I only can imagine what if I was vengeful. Would I use the example Cask Of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe which I learned during my high school literature.

It all boils down to karma. Like in the Christian parable of sowing and reaping. Science teaches us that in every action, there is a reaction. For the past years thanks to social network sites, some of my classmates hook me up online and got together with them. I know they are already changed individuals when they made that move even though they didn't ask for forgiveness. But it made me decide to move on and forget. I just hope I did the right thing.

The movie concentrates on the issue of the effect of bullying in a person that may contribute molding the life of the person. It will also makes you look back that is why the movie has a slogan "the past may haunt your present". Unlike any psychological/suspense thriller, it ended differently as I would expected but it surely changed the lives of people involved.

Were you also bullied when you were a student? You can share or discuss your experience here. For more reflective movie reviews, follow this blog and like L.E.N.S. blogs on Facebook. Opening in cinemas on Aug. 19