The Gift

The Gift
by Sam Raimi

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Movie Reviews of The Gift

Movie Review: THERE ARE GIFTS WITHIN 'THE GIFT'...
Summary: 5 Stars

Cate Blanchett stars as Annie Wilson, a young widow with three sons to raise -- her husband was killed a year before the story in a work-related accident. She and the boys survive on a social security check each month -- to further make ends meet, she gives 'readings' to various members of the small Georgia community of Brixton, calling her talent a 'gift'. She accepts donations, but doesn't set prices -- she doesn't come across as a sideshow fortune teller here. She doesn't have the power to read minds -- or, in a courtroom scene, to tell an attorney how many fingers he's holding up behind his back -- and she never makes any claims in that area. Her gift comes to her in the form of visions or dreams -- sometimes they occur when she's giving a reading, sometimes they come unexpectedly.

One of her clients is a battered wife (Hilary Swank) of a angry, ignorant redneck (played with frightening reality by Keanu Reeves) -- she advises the woman to leave her husband before he puts her in the hospital, advice that sends him to her home to threaten her and her children when he learns of it. Another of her clients, an extremely troubled man named Buddy, is given an outstanding portrayal by Giovanni Ribisi -- the character is seething with (believable) inner torment, which, as the story progresses, we see to be long-buried anger toward his father. Ribisi infuses his character with an incredible level of emotion and vulnerability. Greg Kinnear plays Wayne, the handsome school principal engaged to a beautiful but fairly trampy daughter of a successful local businessman. When this woman turns up missing and local law enforcement runs out of leads, the skeptical sheriff reluctantly turns to Annie for help. Through a series of visions, she aids them in finding the body, the violent redneck is arrested and put on trial...and then the twists begin. From here, you're on your own...NO SPOILERS! Suffice to say that the twists and turns don't always lead where you think they will.

Aside from the well-written story, the skillful direction, and the superb acting in this film, the thing that jumped out at me was noticing how many of these characters were in deep denial of their own primal pain. In one scene, one of Annie's sons asks her at bedtime why they don't go more often to visit their father's grave, why they don't talk about him. She replies by telling him to go to bed, that she wants to read. In doing this, her character is, in effect, telling this child (perhaps not intentionally) that his feelings don't matter -- but at the same time, she's denying her own pain, perhaps stemming from her husband's death. Hilary Swank's battered wife character is in denial that she doesn't deserve to live as a punching bag, that there might be a better way to go through her life. Keanu Reeves redneck Donnie is in denial of his own violent, woman-hating, hungry-for-control nature. The high school principal is blind to the fact that his wife-to-be is a trollop who neither loves nor respects him. And most touchingly, we see Giovanni Ribisi take his character through some very moving realizations about his own childhood and his relationship with his father.

The film is very dark and suspenseful -- and at times very jarring in its imagery and violence, but these moments are brief. It's certainly not exploitive in this regard. It's extremely entertaining -- I don't think most viewers would lose interest as it moves along -- but mostly it's very revealing about the way we humans deal with the primal pain that we all hold within us. Ribisi's character describes it very accurately as a wall in his head that he can't get past -- until we face whatever it iis that iis causing us pain, and deal with it as it stands, we won't get past it, and it will continue to torment us and, in some cases, rule over us. We each have to realize that we need to feel the hurt in order to begin to heal -- not a very attractive prospect, perhaps, but a realistic one.

This outstanding film shines a bright light on this aspect of the human psyche -- it's something from which we could all benefit in viewing more closely. Audiences may have been uncomfortable with this film in theatres because of this aspect -- and they may not have realized why.

Summary of The Gift

Other suspects include a hot-tempered bully (Keanu Reeves) whose battered wife (Hilary Swank) is one of the psychic's regular clients, and a traumatized local (Giovanni Ribisi) who is tenuously stabilized by therapy and antidepressants. While this trio of potential killers keeps the mystery alive, the requisite red herrings don't add much to the film's low-level suspense. Instead, Raimi is far more effective in creating an atmosphere of anxious dread that wells up from each of these finely drawn characters, starting with the widow psychic's extended mourning for her lost husband, the agonized terror of a beaten wife, and the percolating anger of a cuckolded spouse. All of this makes The Gift a worthy showcase for its esteemed cast, even as its plot twists grow increasingly familiar. --Jeff Shannon