The Gift (2000) 2 stars out of 4. Starring Cate Blanchett, Keanu Reeves, Giovanni Ribisi, Greg Kinnear, Katie Holmes, Hilary Swank, Gary Cole and J.K. Simmons. Screenplay by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson. Directed by Sam Raimi. Rated R.
With the exception of the performance of Cate Blanchett, The Gift is a major disappointment.
Written by actor-director Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson, and directed by Sam Raimi, the movie crawls, the plot is flimsy and the suspense is minimal.
This is one of those Southern Gothic tales filled with eccentric and offbeat characters who seem to only exist below the Mason-Dixon line.
Supposedly Thornton based Blanchettís Annie Wilson, who is psychic, on his own mother who read fortunes.
Annie, a young widow with three boys, uses her gift to do readings for the locals in her rural Georgia town. At times, she has visions in which she sees future events as well as some that already have passed.
This gets her involved in the murder of Jessica King (Dawson Creekís Katie Holmes), a young, rich, spoiled local woman who is found strangled in a pond, a chain wrapped around her body.
Of course, the main suspect, Donnie Barksdale (Keanu Reeves) is a redneck, cheatiní, wife beater who has threatened Annie because she does readings for his abused spouse (Oscar-winner Hilary Swank), urging the poor woman to leave Donnie.
Now, since The Gift is part murder mystery, anyone with any film sense knows immediately Reeves is not the killer.
And so because the filmís main characters are sparse, the list of suspects is greatly narrowed, making the identity of the killer easy to determine. Is it Wayne Collins (Greg Kinnear), her school principal fiancé? Or is it David Duncan (Gary Cole), the county prosecutor with whom Jessica was having an affair? Or could it be Buddy Cole (Giovanni Ribisi), the local nut case who was sexually abused as a child by his father? Or maybe it was Valerie Barksdale (Swank), who knew her hubby was carryiní on with Jessica.
The Gift would have been a better movie if it had concentrated more on Annie Wilson and her interaction with the other townspeople ó some of whom think sheís a witch ó than forcing its audience to walk through this transparent labyrinth trying to guess who the killer really is.
For Blanchettís Annie is very reluctant about using her power, which it seems she considers more of a burden than a gift. Instead of telling people their futures, she tries to set them on the right path to determine their own destinies.
The Gift is partly redeemed by its Twilight Zone-like resolution, but overall it remains an unsatisfying endeavor.
Blanchettís Annie is an interesting individual. At times she is frightened by her gift, tentative about how to use it. Up front she tells her clients that she cannot solve their problems, only suggest the road they must take to reach their own resolution.
At times, though, the script undermines her. When she realizes Donnie, who has been convicted of Jessicaís death, is not guilty, she runs to the prosecutor, spills the beans about seeing him and Jessica catching a quickie in a closet, and insists he reopen the case.
She also visits Wayne, telling him of her feelings that Donnie has been railroaded. Not a smart thing to do since these two guys would now be considered suspects.
The performances in The Gift, other than Blanchettís, are rather uneven. Reeves plays Donnie as if auditioning for one of the deranged backwoodsmen from Deliverance; Ribisi gives another of his, ìHey look at me, I'm nutsî characterization for which he seems to be becoming typecast; Swank is totally wasted; while Kinnear plays Wayne as a rather passive, colorless lacking any real personality.
Only J.K. Simmons (best known as the racist inmate on HBOís Oz) is memorable as the easy-going county sheriff who is dubious of Annieís gift.
The scene in which he asks about a missing eclair while she is trying to give him information about the missing Jessica is priceless. If only more sequences in The Gift could have been so well written.
The Gift is a flawed movie that wastes the potential of its cast. It falls short as a character study, a thriller and a mystery.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at bloom@journal-courier.com or at bobbloom@iquest.net. More reviews by Bloom can be found at www.jconline.com and click on golafayette. Bloom's reviews also can be found on the Web at the Internet Movie Database site: http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom
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