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The GiftRating:
Release Date: 01 April, 2003 Retail Price: $12.98 OUR Price: $9.99 You SAVE: $2.99! Cast: Complete Cast (15 total) |
The Gift Reviews
A Very Tense Film
The gift is a film about Annie Wilson a young woman with very real telepathic talents. Widow and mother of three, Annie Wilson, makes her living by foretelling others' futures, though her own has become cloudier than even she can see. Threatened by a client's violently jealous husband and plagued by visions of a missing towns-girl, Annie is unwittingly pulled into a thicket of lies and deception in which her extraordinary gift could be used against her and get her killed.I knew someone who was gifted, and from what I can tell, the movie was pretty accurate. And the musical score just heavenly.
Shamefully Overlooked Southern Gothic Murder Mystery Has Atmosphere, Genuine Thrills and the Superb Blanchett
This is surely one of the most seriously underrated mystery thrillers around, which is a shame since director Sam Raimi, just before hitting the jackpot with the "Spider-Man" franchise, has assembled a wildly improbable cast to inhabit an admittedly lurid though constantly involving 2001 movie. I was in a town on the southernmost tip of Chile when I first saw this movie in a hotel room which just happen to have HBO. Not even the outside splendor of a midnight sun could tear me away from watching the movie on the TV set back then.
Co-written by Billy Bob Thornton (upon whose mother's psychic gifts the story is based) and Tom Epperson, the plot revolves around the disappearance of Jessica Starlet, the daughter of a wealthy resident of a Georgia backwater town. Tired of blind alleys, the police begrudgingly recruit Annie Wilson, a single mother of three sons, who lost her husband in a factory accident and now has to earn a living as a tarot reading psychic/fortune teller. Annie thinks she finds a suspect in Donnie Barksdale, the abusive, white-trash husband of one of her most devoted customers, Valerie. Complicating matters for Annie is her attraction to Wayne Collins, her eldest son's teacher and Jessica's fiancee; and Buddy Cole, another of Annie's customers, a suicidal mechanic traumatized by the parental abuse he received as a child.
While it's not perfectly constructed, the sometimes excessive screenplay contains a lot of layers but remains true to the characters' voices and motivations throughout. Raimi's expert direction is full of sumptuous Southern gothic visuals and genuine tension that escalates over the course of the story. Credit needs to be given to Jamie Anderson's cinematography and Neil Spisak's production design for establishing such a heady atmosphere perfect for the labyrinth plot. Some of the actors really surprised me with strong turns, including Katie Holmes as the spoiled, baby-faced debutante Jessica; Greg Kinnear as the seemingly stalwart Wayne; Keanu Reeves especially visceral and chilling as unrepentant wife-beater Donnie; and Giovanni Ribisi as the deeply troubled Buddy.
In the smallish role of Valerie, Hilary Swank makes her moments count as she cringes from Donnie's scarifying dominance over her. But it's the wondrous Cate Blanchett who pulls it all together with her multi-dimensional performance as Annie. With a convincing Southern accent, she reveals the hidden layers of her character beautifully as she tries to recover from the loss of her husband, protect her children and make sense of the psychic revelations that traumatize her and us. The DVD is short on extras - a fifteen-minute featurette which includes cast and crew interviews, the movie's trailer and a video of Neko Case's "Furniture Room Lullaby" which perfectly reflects the haunting soundtrack. Definitely seek this one out if you are looking for an atmospheric, character-driven thriller that does not condescend to the viewer.
More Customer Reviews (33 total)
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