The GiftSuppose you had a "gift"--a unique ability that afforded you insight where others had none. And suppose that this gift was something of a blessing, and something of a curse. That gift was rarely understood--even by yourself--and thrust you into a role you might otherwise have avoided. That is the situation in which a young widow and mother of three named Annabelle "Annie" Wilson (Cate Blanchett) finds herself. Possessing a kind of extrasensory perception, Annie "reads" people by way of a set of memory cards and sees beyond her senses through dreams...even when those dreams reveal details of a murder yet to come.
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The Gift is a supernatural psychological thriller set in the Deep South, and Annie's clairvoyance puts her at the center of a collection of events in her town. Among the people she reads for, there is the battered wife, Valerie Barksdale (Hilary Swank). Valerie's husband is an "insecure redneck" named Donnie (Keanu Reeves), who threatens Annie and her children after discovering that Annie advised Valerie to leave him. Donnie becomes a constant source of menace for Annie throughout The Gift, and she even appears to foresee attempts on her life by him. Annie has befriended a troubled young mechanic named Buddy Cole (Giovanni Ribisi), who pleads with Annie to read for him every day in lieu of psychiatric aid for what resembles schitzophrenia. On top of all of this, Annie's eldest son, Mike (Lynnsee Provence), has been getting into fights at school, and the school's sympathetic principal, Wayne Collins (Greg Kinnear), offers what aid he can to Annie to help her through her family's troubled times. But when Annie meets with Wayne, she also bumps into his fiancée, Jessica King (Katie Holmes), and suffers a vision of the attractive young woman drowned and decomposing. Some time later, Jessica is reported missing and Annie is consulted by Wayne--along with a skeptical town sheriff named Pearl Johnson (J.K. Simmons) and Jessica's well-off father and preacher, Kenneth King (Chelcie Ross)--and she reluctantly shares her visions. And when Annie reveals where she dreamed that Jessica's body would be found, it seems like an open and shut case, incriminating Donnie. This is followed by a trial that draws attention to the uncommon means by which the body was discovered, and more importantly, Annie's misunderstood "gift".
Fitting the film's name, The Gift is a bounty of talent, many of whom have gone on to have incredibly successful careers in movies. Written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson--who also wrote One False Move--and directed by Sam Raimi--exercising uncharacteristic restraint, in my opinion--The Gift is a standout example of how a supernatural thriller can also be distinctly rooted in reality. There are numerous moments early on identifying that the Wilson family hasn't adequately processed their grief over the loss of Annie's husband. Annie shares that even though she had a faint premonition of something tragic happening to her husband on the day of his death, she could not stop him from going to work where the terrible accident happened that took his life. Annie and her children live in a small house, and all three boys share a single room. Annie receives some money from the government after the loss of her husband, but has to supplement this with her readings. She visits Buddy to fix the door on her car, and is ashamed when she tells him that she can't pay him yet. She is derisively called a "fortune teller" by others, and during the trial is condemned by Donnie's outraged compatriots as a "witch". Annie's life is hard, and one wonders if her grief fuels her premonitions. After all, people suffering from extreme stress may have terrible dreams; Annie has those. Many of the characters in The Gift fit into a familiar mold, somehow reminding me a bit of the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, which coincidentally also includes a trial near the end of the story. Jessica is unlikable from the start, and The Gift underscores this by also making her the "town harlot". (In fact, the way that she kisses her daddy on the lips should raise more than a few questions.) Annie catches Jessica in flagrante delicto with the town's prosecutor, David Duncan (Gary Cole), while she is out with her friend at a country club, where Annie feels more than a little out of her element. Yet Annie withholds this detail from Wayne when they have a moment alone. Is it because she doesn't want to hurt his feelings? Or is she avoiding drawing any more unwanted attention toward her than she already receives as a psychic? The Gift alludes to the development of a romance between Annie and Wayne, but also downplays this because both people have other romantic obligations. As Wayne observes, Annie isn't married any longer, and yet because she has refused to address her grief, she feels otherwise; she still wears her wedding ring. And Wayne becomes pitiable because he is not only a cuckold but a "nice guy", which happens to be Kinnear's specialty. Throughout The Gift, the audience's sympathies are constantly being toyed with, to an extent that even around the end of the movie, it is a little obvious about the twists that are waiting for us. Nevertheless, The Gift survives this on the basis of being such a compelling yarn that is both classical in its structure and performed by a cast that shines.
Recommended for: Fans of a gripping and mysterious thriller that is more at home in its true-to-life setting than in exploring the more complex aspects of supernatural phenomena. For film buffs, it's exciting to see this mélange of talent create a work that feels inspired by great films of yesteryear (again, To Kill a Mockingbird leaps to mind) while also affording the benefit of seeing how many of its actors (notably Blanchett) developed their craft here and rose to prominence afterward.
Fitting the film's name, The Gift is a bounty of talent, many of whom have gone on to have incredibly successful careers in movies. Written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson--who also wrote One False Move--and directed by Sam Raimi--exercising uncharacteristic restraint, in my opinion--The Gift is a standout example of how a supernatural thriller can also be distinctly rooted in reality. There are numerous moments early on identifying that the Wilson family hasn't adequately processed their grief over the loss of Annie's husband. Annie shares that even though she had a faint premonition of something tragic happening to her husband on the day of his death, she could not stop him from going to work where the terrible accident happened that took his life. Annie and her children live in a small house, and all three boys share a single room. Annie receives some money from the government after the loss of her husband, but has to supplement this with her readings. She visits Buddy to fix the door on her car, and is ashamed when she tells him that she can't pay him yet. She is derisively called a "fortune teller" by others, and during the trial is condemned by Donnie's outraged compatriots as a "witch". Annie's life is hard, and one wonders if her grief fuels her premonitions. After all, people suffering from extreme stress may have terrible dreams; Annie has those. Many of the characters in The Gift fit into a familiar mold, somehow reminding me a bit of the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, which coincidentally also includes a trial near the end of the story. Jessica is unlikable from the start, and The Gift underscores this by also making her the "town harlot". (In fact, the way that she kisses her daddy on the lips should raise more than a few questions.) Annie catches Jessica in flagrante delicto with the town's prosecutor, David Duncan (Gary Cole), while she is out with her friend at a country club, where Annie feels more than a little out of her element. Yet Annie withholds this detail from Wayne when they have a moment alone. Is it because she doesn't want to hurt his feelings? Or is she avoiding drawing any more unwanted attention toward her than she already receives as a psychic? The Gift alludes to the development of a romance between Annie and Wayne, but also downplays this because both people have other romantic obligations. As Wayne observes, Annie isn't married any longer, and yet because she has refused to address her grief, she feels otherwise; she still wears her wedding ring. And Wayne becomes pitiable because he is not only a cuckold but a "nice guy", which happens to be Kinnear's specialty. Throughout The Gift, the audience's sympathies are constantly being toyed with, to an extent that even around the end of the movie, it is a little obvious about the twists that are waiting for us. Nevertheless, The Gift survives this on the basis of being such a compelling yarn that is both classical in its structure and performed by a cast that shines.
Recommended for: Fans of a gripping and mysterious thriller that is more at home in its true-to-life setting than in exploring the more complex aspects of supernatural phenomena. For film buffs, it's exciting to see this mélange of talent create a work that feels inspired by great films of yesteryear (again, To Kill a Mockingbird leaps to mind) while also affording the benefit of seeing how many of its actors (notably Blanchett) developed their craft here and rose to prominence afterward.