GIFT REVIEW:

At first,  I was a tad bit disappointed that Keanu had only about 4 or 5 scenes in it, 

but who's counting right? Nevertheless, he was in it, and he was good, damn good, 

very plausible, very intimidating and quite awesome.

However, the funny thing about this movie was that in the theatre, there were only 2 people 

watching it, another lady and I. And it turns out she came to see it cos of him, too. 

Hmmm, how much he has enveloped women's minds.

Overall, he did a good job. Any Keanu fan would have been proud as much as the critics 

were with this one for once. He added much needed light to the slow drag, 

stillness and exaggerated eeriness of the movie, instilling action, fieriness and movement. 

You'd find that in scenes where he wasn't, the dialogue was slow, moving at the pace of a snail's, 

and the actors seemed uneasy, and unhappy with the lowly environs they were put in.

And in the ones he was---accompanied with Giovanni Ribisi who did a tremendous job playing an 

imbalanced schizophrenic---the tension built up and you could feel its thickness deepen so much that 

a knife couldn't cut through it. I particularly enjoyed the scene they played in together, for two

 young actors without any accolades, they helped an ensemble cast (filled with accolades) to pep 

up the dreary scenery, and heat up the screen with intensity and unadulterated rage.

I hope he gets an Oscar nod, even if he doesn't, I'll be watching that movie several times and 

labeling it as one of his finest works, an ever, trying and challenging role, by far the work of a 

good director.

 Sam Raimi did a good job in fleshing out the pent up rage inside these young men 

revealing them in a complete opposite way to what they had formally been viewed in; and that 

goes to show what the effect of a good director can do to determined hard working actors. 

The script was intelligent, crafty, slow paced, but awfully predictable, leaving us with vivid 

clues as to who the murderer was, a good attempt to shield it still left us with open holes where 

the clues seeped through. 

Starring: Greg Kinnear, Cate Blanchett, Katie Holmes, Giovanni Ribisi and Hilary Swank.

Overall: The Gift is an eerie movie for those with a strong heart and a clueless imagination.