Present tense gets twisted

Director’s debut a thriller worth unwrapping

Jason Bateman understands the difficulty of directing yourself in a movie, after doing double duty on the set of the caustic comedy Bad Words. The 46- yearold was also making his directorial debut with Bad Words just like Joel Edgerton is with The Gift, which opens Friday. But during The Gift shoot, co- star Bateman kept his advice to himself.

“I don’t know that much about directing anyway, and Joel certainly doesn’t need any help,” says the actor at the Los Angeles house where they filmed much of The Gift.

“Joel has so much experience as an actor, and often times that’s really what you’re looking for with a director,” Bateman says.

The fact Edgerton also wrote the thriller made him even more qualified to direct.

In the movie, Edgerton plays the pivotal character Gordo, a former high school associate of Simon ( Bateman), who has arrived in L. A. with his wife Robyn ( Rebecca Hall), hoping to improve their lives.

As Gordo begins to frequent their house with surprise visits and presents, Simon becomes frustrated and then annoyed.

Driving the tension behind the sometimes mysterious series of events, are the expert performances of Edgerton, Bateman and Hall.

Certainly, the thriller genre is a change of pace for Bateman, a comedy veteran who revived his career with the sitcom Arrested Development.

He continued the momentum with some high- profile co- starring parts in film hits, including the satire Juno, and the recent Horrible Bosses farces.

Edgerton had never worked with Bateman, but the director needed somebody with an unpredictable edge for the Simon character.

“I don’t even know if I had read the script yet, I was just thrilled that ( Joel), wanted to talk to me about it,” Bateman says of his initial involvement. “He had already talked to or locked down Rebecca ( Hall), and that said a lot to me about the project, and the way Joel wanted to do it.”

Hall, 33, is a London stage veteran who has dabbled in Hollywood studio movies from The Town, to Iron Man 3, but she says

I knew the material was being elevated by these guys and it got me very excited.

she’s always searching for an independent film role. It didn’t take long for her to accept Edgerton’s invitation.

“We lucked out with this one,” says Hall, referring to the chemistry of the main cast members.

Indeed, both actors had confidence Edgerton would maintain the appropriate tone throughout the complex plot.

“When you’re a fan of somebody like Joel for along time, you get a sense of what his taste is,” Bateman says.

Edgerton gave Hall the added burden of defining a person the audience can appreciate.

“You can’t really think a lot about that,” Hall says.

“But I suppose I did think about how to track the story clearly to the audience, and reveal things about Robyn that weren’t necessarily on the page.”

A few days into filming, a relieved Edgerton knew his actors were on the right track.

“I started to feel confident about the images we were getting back,” he says.

“I knew the material was being elevated by these guys and it got me very excited.”

Upon hearing the compliment, Bateman shrugs.

“It’s really who we all are as actors,” he says. “We just know how to be pretty convincing liars.”