The Gift

Plot synopsis:
Set in the fictional town of Brixton, Georgia, young widow and mother of three young boys Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchett), is the town fortuneteller. The town is abuzz with the disappearance of Jessica King (Katie Holmes), fiancée of Wayne Collins (Greg Kinnear), the school's principal.As the search for Jessica begins, the local police and Jessica's father, Kenneth King (Chelcie Ross), enlist Annie's help to see if she can solve Jessica's disappearance. Annie is unable to produce a vision, largely due to the presence of Sheriff Pearl Johnson (J. K. Simmons), who looks upon Annie's trade unfavorably.Annie later receives a vision that Jessica has been murdered and her body weighed down by a chain and thrown into a pond. She also sees a fiddle player, white lilies, and a split-rail fence. She goes to Sherrif Johnson with her findings, and with the information, Johnson decides to search a pond on the property of violent alcoholic Donnie Barksdale (Keanu Reeves), whose battered wife, Valerie (Hilary Swank), gives permission to search their house as Donnie is away fishing. Donnie returns while the search is proceeding. As the police are ready to give up on the search, they find the naked and chained body of Jessica King. Donnie is immediately arrested.During his trial for Jessica's murder, it is revealed that Jessica and Barksdale had an affair, and Jessica's reputation for promiscuity is exposed in court. The case against Barksdale is strengthened when a scratch on his forearm is proven to have been perpetrated by Jessica during a confrontation at a local bar. Annie also takes the stand, and though her psychic testimony is ridiculed by skeptic defense attorney Gerald Weems (Michael Jeter), Donnie is eventually convicted and sent to prison.A subplot reveals other examples of Annie's "gift". Buddy Cole (Giovanni Ribisi) harbors an intense hatred for his father, and consistently has fits of seemingly unprovoked rage, including incidents with Annie -- one of Buddy's only friends -- and with Donnie Barksdale. Buddy tries to explain to Annie why he hates his father, but Annie is preoccupied and doesn't want to listen to the panicky and vulgar Buddy. He asks her, "If I look into a blue diamond, will I die?" but doesn't elaborate. Unable to understand the question, Annie shrugs Buddy off.Soon after, Buddy's hysterical mother calls Annie to come over, as Buddy has snapped and has his father bound to a chair. Buddy sets fire to his father, and as Annie tries to stop him, he shows her a blue diamond tattoo on his father's navel. It is revealed that Buddy's father took advantage of his son's fragile mental state to force him into fellatio. An ambulance takes Buddy's father away, while Buddy is taken to a psychiatric hospital.Later, Annie receives another vision saying that Donnie is innocent. She asks District Attorney David Duncan (Gary Cole) to reopen the case. Duncan refuses, but Annie counters that she will reveal Duncan's own involvement with Jessica King, as Annie had caught them making out in the women's restroom at a local dance. Duncan offers her money to keep quiet, but Annie refuses, still wanting justice for Barksdale.Annie tells Principal Collins that Barksdale is not responsible for his fiancée's death and that D.A. Duncan will not reopen the investigation. After driving out to the pond that night with Collins, Annie realizes that Collins is the murderer. He confesses to Annie that he was angry after he discovered that she was cheating on him with nearly every man in town. Knowing that she'll go to the police, Collins attempts to kill Annie. Just as he is about to land a fatal blow with a steel flashlight, Buddy Cole shows up and knocks Collins out.Sitting in the car at the pond, Buddy, uncharacteristically calm, returns a handkerchief that Annie had loaned him earlier, and tells her that she is the heart and soul of the town and not to stop doing what she's doing. The two drive to the police station with Collins stowed in the trunk. Annie tells Buddy that he will have to return to the hospital, and he waits in the car while she goes inside to talk with Sheriff Johnson. When Annie explains to Johnson what happened at the pond and that Buddy saved her life, the sheriff informs her that Buddy Cole had hanged himself at the hospital earlier that day. She returns to her car to find Buddy gone. However, Annie still has her handkerchief that Buddy's ghost returned to her.

Tags: paranormal, violence, intrigue, murder, flashback

Review:
Who could believe that she is Australian?In short, 'The Gift' is well worth seeing, primarily for Cate Blanchett, but also for the supporting actors Keanu Reeves (very impressive and effective) Hilary Swank (underused) and the magnificent Giovanni Ribisi - who is both explosive and reticent as Buddy Cole.
In a small town deep in the South, a single mother endowed with a special ability becomes involved with the disappearance of a young woman and has a brush with the supernatural, in `The Gift,' directed by Sam Raimi.
Cate Blanchett stars as Annie Wilson, a young widow attempting to raise her three kids and provide a decent life for her family, scraping out a living on Social Security since the tragic death of her husband in a work related accident the previous year.
And though it's helped her maintain her home, she soon finds that it doesn't always make for the most pleasant of situations, as when she must advise a young woman, Valerie Barksdale (Hilary Swank), on how to cope with her abusive husband, Donnie (Keanu Reeves), or attempt to help a troubled young man, Buddy Cole (Giovanni Ribisi) come to terms with some sensitive aspects of his life.
Then, when a client comes to her to ask for help when his daughter disappears, not only does it take her to the dark side of the human experience, she discovers that certain individuals, including local sheriff Pearl Johnson (J.K. Simmons) do not believe that her `gift' is real.Stylistically crafted and delivered, Raimi's film will keep you engrossed and on the edge of your seat until the very end.
As the central character, Annie anchors the film and enables the circumstances in which she is involved to be perceived as real; it's the strength of the film, and it's what makes it all work so well.What also makes it work is the strong performance by Cate Blanchett, who makes Annie so real and accessible, displaying her `gift' with restraint and avoiding the possible pitfall of taking it too far over the edge, which could easily have made it suspect.
With consummate skill, Blanchett creates a well rounded character which demonstrates that as an actor, she definitely has a very real `gift' of her own.Ribisi also does a memorable turn as Buddy, with a striking performance in which he creates some disturbing moments that are almost painful to watch; his is a character study of a soul in distress, seeking solace and resolution, and even as he attempts to sort out his life, you are able to sympathize with his plight as you share Buddy's experiences.
With films like `Saving Private Ryan' and now this one, Ribisi is on his way to establishing himself as one of the premiere character actors in the business today.Playing somewhat against type, Reeves proves that he can be a good `bad' guy, giving possibly one of his best performances ever as Donnie.
It's a good job by Reeves, who deserves credit for taking on a role that is so disagreeable and insensitive.The supporting cast includes Greg Kinnear (Wayne), Katie Holmes (Jessica), Kim Dickens (Linda), Gary Cole (David) and Rosemary Harris (Annie's Granny).
Keanu Reeves is very effective as a wife abusing husband and Hilary Swank, Katie Holmes, Greg Kinnear, Giovanni Ribisi and Gary Cole are all very good in their roles.
She thinks the wrong man has been put away and now she fears that the real killer is going to come after her.What The Gift benefits from, besides great performances, is tight direction.
I was disappointed with how Thorton wrote the court room scenes but that is about all I was disappointed with.The Gift is not one of the best horror films I've ever seen, but it is an enjoyable one and if I had to compare it to another similar one to it, I would have to say that this was better than What Lies Beneath.
Greg Kinnear is good and subtle, and Hilary Swank continues to flaunt her brilliant acting abilities as the vulnerable wife of Donny who constantly takes beatings from him, yet still maintains her love for him.The story is very intriguing, revolving around a cast of colorful characters.
Although the brutality inherent in the script is laid on with a trowel, "The Gift" has many mesmerizing attributes, not the least of which is Sam Raimi's assured direction and the casting of luminous Cate Blanchett, sensational in the lead.
I thought THE GIFT was going to be another of those clichéd tales involving a fortune teller , but as soon as the credits revealed that the director was the underrated Sam Raimi I suddenly started hoping that this was going to be a good film and my expectations were more than satisfied.Raimi is probably best known for his SPIDERMAN blockbuster and the EVIL DEAD films , but I can't help thinking he's far better suited to human dramas like this film and A SIMPLE PLAN .
The scene-switching goofs and errors aren't enough to destroy the whole of the film.I like the entire concept of having a crime which was witnessed by a person who wasn't even in the crime scene but witnessed it through her dreams and visions.Despite the fact that movies featuring extrasensory perception of a character is not very unique, what makes this movie really crafted is the great talent of its producers to create an ambiance of mystery without the need of making mainstream plots like having deaths caused by ghosts or monsters haunting for justice.I also liked that they were able to portray spooky scenes without using heavy prosthetic make-up and with just a little of computer generated effects.
Cate Blanchett is great in the lead  role as are Keanu Reeves, Hilary Swank and Katie Holmes who has a greta  nude scene.
4 – Katie Holmes unleashing the "Cruise missiles" at last.1 – First the cast: The "Good" – Cate Blanchett, Greg Kinnear, The "They'll do" – Keanu Reeves, Hillary Swank, Giovanni Ribisi and the "Maybe she'll get 'em out?", Katie Holmes.2 – Sam Raimi almost goes back to his roots of horror with this one, I love when he does straight horror, but he is a very fine director of so-called mainstream films as well, moreso when ignoring the Spiderman series.
The plot of The Gift revolves around the disappearance of a young woman from a small backwoods town in the US, and how the various townsfolk are somehow involved or impacted.The primary character is Cate Blanchett as a hard working, penniless mother of three named Annie, who happens to have eerily accurate visions of the future.
The strength of Cate in the role is that she is a good actress and makes some of the later visions a little more credible than they might otherwise be - and she also has no issue with wearing some of the dodgiest tracky dacks ever seen on TV.Annie gives readings for many local people, including several regulars who fortunately are professional actors, Giovanni Ribisi as Buddy and Hillary Swank as Valerie among them.
The remainder of the film takes a great many twists and turns on the way to clarifying what happened to Jessica and who is ultimately responsible.Among the red herrings and dead ends are many of the signature Sam Raimi "LOUD" moments, indicating things or bad guys may or may not be there, the suspicion and blame of prominent characters, and Buddy has a couple of memorable moments that help to illustrate his insanity.The ending was a little preposterous and hokey, it almost appeared that they run out of interest and just tacked on a "that'll do" ending to get the film in the can.
Get a load of the talent involved in the making of The Gift: Evil Dead creator/Spiderman director Sam Raimi called the shots; Best Writing Oscar winner Billy Bob Thornton co-wrote the script; and future Oscar winning actresses Cate Blanchett and Hilary Swank led the great cast that also featured the always reliable Giovanni Ribisi, Keanu Reeves (giving one of the best performances of his career) and Katie Holmes's tits (she might not have won any Oscars, but she's the owner of a magnificent pair of Golden Globes!!!).
In fact, The Gift is such a hauntingly effective film, it makes me wonder why Raimi bothered producing a remake of over-rated Asian horror The Grudge when he already had such a truly great ghost story under his belt.8.5 out of 10, rounded up to 9 for IMDb..
So here I am now writing a review because I just can't believe the ratio between known quality talent (Cate Blanchett, Hilary Swank, Keanu Reeves, Giovanni Ribisi, Greg Kinnear, Katie Holmes - for goodness sake think of the movies that could have been made with this line-up!) and end product.
When you roll in sweet girl Katie Holmes as the village slut and tidy Brit Cate playing the Bayou welfare single mom, it leads me to guess that the reason for making the movie was to give all these people an opportunity to play a contrasting role with their historical castings.I am seriously going to ask for my rental money back when I return it to the video store, something I have never done before.
A friend of mine who saw this with me claims he figured it out 20 minutes into the film, this is highly possible.There is a lot of talent wasted in this boring and predictable "thriller." whoever did the sets should be commended, they are so convincingly sordid that you can almost feel the humidity of this poor southern town.
I can say from my experience as a psychic that Billy Bob Thornton makes the psychic's life believably real – and Sam Raimi's directing along with Cate Blanchett's portrayal of Annie Wilson come together to seal the deal.
A young woman gets killed in a small town, and Annie Wilson, a widowed mother of three boys, is the only one who can help to find the killer by using her "gift", an ability to see and foresee things supernaturally.The film starts out fine, introducing the characters one by one, and aptly creating the atmosphere of a typical southern urban town.
Billy Bob Thornton can't write, Keanu Reeves can't be menacing, and Katie Holmes can't be slutty, but that didn't stop all three giving it their best shot.I suppose I'm mainly surprised by the overall positive response this film received.
The director fills it with every 'scarymovie' camera trick in the book, but it's the story that doesn't work.There is some over acting- Ribisi as the local 'slow' character chews upa lot of scenery, and Greg Kinnear explores new areas of stiff, butoverall I just felt sorry for all these people wasting their time on allthat nothingness.
Except for Hilary swank of course lol, did stupid things i mean, but she really played her role great too, it was funny seeing her like that, but cate blanchett did an amazing performance!
Kate Blanchett had a very good performance and, as someone else mentioned, does carry the film.There are a lot of good actors playing secondary roles in this movie.
He focuses on his actors, which give good performances, especially Cate Blanchett and Keanu Reeves as a wife-beating redneck, but they cannot change the fact, that we have seen this many, many times before.
Anyone who loves a good slice of southern Gothic murder mystery should check out Sam Raimi's The Gift, one of several films in the eclectic scoundrel's ouvre which made a departure from his usual brand of chaotic horror.
Great entertainment.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.
Aussie Cate Blanchett as a single Louisiana mom/widow of three teenaged sons who tells fortunes to make ends meet; Hillary Swank as the beaten wife; Keanu Reeves as the evil, loose handed redneck husband (there's a change from Bill & Ted Excellent Adventures and The Matrix, though not as much from The Watcher - he seems to go for more sinister roles nowadays); Gary Coleman (The Nighthawk) as an ambitious prosecutor (he looked like he aged really well); Giovani Ribisi as the "troubled" Buddy (who gives the best performance); Katie Holmes as the spoiled heiress who can't seem to stop running around (she even gets really naked)...It seems like the actors really enjoyed the challenge of playing unusual characters that stretch them outside their usual screen personas.
Yes the ending of this filming was predictable, but I loved it anyway.In particular I found the characters of Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchett) and Buddy Cole (Giovani Ribisi) engaging.
If they hung a big sign on the killer that said `MURDERER', it couldn't have been more obvious than the way director Sam Raimi constructed the story around Billy Bob Thornton's screenplay.Kate Blanchett does a good job as the fortune teller, although I wouldn't put it on a par with `Elizabeth'.
Annie Walker (Cate Blanchett) is a psychic who reads cards for a living, she begins to get haunted through her visions by a murdered woman called Jessica King (Katie Holmes) and when the police ask for her help in the investigation she is forced to use her powers to save herself from becoming the next victim of the murderer.Cate Blanchett is fantastic in the role, capturing the character with an Ora of mystery and intrigue; she is well supported by Katie Holmes, Keanu Reeves, Giovanni Ribisi and Hilary Swank.
Some of the actors really surprised me with strong turns, including Katie Holmes as the spoiled, baby-faced débutante 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.
An A-List cast lead by Cate Blanchette delivers solid performances, even if it is difficult to buy Keanu Reeves with a Southern accent.It's an interesting attempt to combine the dramatic elements of 'A Simple Plan' with the supernatural, horror elements of Raimi's earlier works, the ones that made him famous: 'Evil Dead' and 'Evil Dead II'.There are plenty of twists, enough to keep you guessing, and this is not a predictable movie despite what the naysayers may try to make you believe (the ones that sit the whole movie trying to guess the end, and when one of their twenty guesses prove right, they scream, "I TOLD you!").
The gift is certainly a good movie.And for the first time since Ocean's Eleven(THE NEW VERSION) a big group of famous actors and actrises work together with sintony.It's a regular movie with a cliché story but the performances takes the movie to a high level.Cate Blanchet is the best playing the widow who has visions from a murder.Katie Holmes is cute and sexy playing a denny and spicy girl.I laugh with the `24 hours crazy' Giovanni Ribisi, he's wonderful.Reeves is creepy in the picture,he really scares!Sam Raimi is definately a good director he never disapoint us,specially now with Spider Man playing at the cinemas.A curiosity about `The Gift' is that J.K.Simons and Rosemary Harris are in this film and in the Spider-man too.Raimi has a gift for doing movies.8 out of 10..
Maybe i'm wrong but it's the first movie i watch with a lot of big names and that ends up really good : Hillary, Keanu, Katie, Cate, Kinnear and Ribisi really push their original characters and thus the movie never lost quality.
Anyway, seeing that Sam Raimi, the director of the cult "Evil Dead" series and more recently the "Spider Man" movies was at the helm for "The Gift", I thought I'd give it a shot despite my concerns.When a young woman (played by a very sultry Katie Holmes) disappears, the police are baffled as to what has happened to her.
Besides Blanchett, Greg Kinnear, Giovanni Ribisi, Hilary Swank and Katie Holmes all put in good performances.
While he's nowhere near as impressive as the movie's star, he puts in a dominant performance with the help of good direction.Speaking of direction, Sam Raimi does an awesome job crafting a tight thriller with supernatural and horror elements.
"The Gift" stars Cate Blanchett ("The Missing") as Annie Wilson, a widowed mother of three who uses her psychic powers to tell fortunes for her local townsfolk.
Cate Blanchette was awesome, and Keanu Reeves was all but recognizable as 'stereotypical redneck.' I think a lot about the success of the movie is that it keeps the audience interested in the story by being a mystery, ornamented with scares and 'visions.' It's a good movie to rent and watch at night.
Kate Blanchett in particular is at times mesmerising, Keanu Reeves is frighteningly convincing as a wife beating Red-Neck, Katie Holmes proves that she can play the man-eating vixen as well as her sappy Dawson's Creek character, and Giovanni Ribisi is also  thoroughly convincing as the towns gibbering, unstable yockel.All in all, I think that Raimi has created an thoroughly entertaining, suspenseful movie, that will leave the audience on the edge of there seat, and send the pulse racing!
Keanu Reeves is actually good (don't expect his typical routine), Hilary Swank follows up her Oscar with a strong performance, Greg Kinnear is excellent (we need to see more of him) and Katie Holmes tackles her first adult role and does well (showing some skin does help a little).
I liked it, Sam Raimi is a great director and Thornton a good writer but I have to say that he wasn't inspired this time.
But what does work is Cate Blanchette, which "The Gift" fittingly revolves around and which, by her strong faithful character, makes this film worth watching..
This movie is along a serious tone of Raimi's as A SIMPLE PLAN is, and like A SIMPLE PLAN both films are great story telling.The acting is also very well performed.