| The Gift |
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| Rating: Fair Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics MPAA Rating: R Genre: Supernatural, Thriller, Mystery Running Length: 1 hour, 51 minutes Release Date: December 20th, 2000 (LA), January 19th, 2001 (wide) Director: Sam Raimi Cast: Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi, Keanu Reaves, Greg Kinnear, Michael Jeter, Danny Elfman, Katie Holmes, Gary Cole, Kim Dickens, Hilary Swank, and Stuart Greer. |
| Plot: A psychic fortune teller (Cate Blanchett) is a mother of three, but terribly poor. Her husband died a year prior, and so her feeble income from her fortune telling, and her social security checks from her husband are all she has to keep the family afloat. A client (Giovanni Ribisi) of hers is having difficulty controlling himself, thus he takes medicine, and with her help he discovers that he must delve into the dark things that his childhood spawned within him. But, once he finds the revelation can he control himself? Another client (Hilary Swank) is beaten by her husband (Keanu Reaves), and when the psychic tells her to leave him he terrorizes her life and threatens her children. Meanwhile, her friend (Greg Kinnear), and principal of her son's school cannot find his fiancee (Katie Holmes), and it is announced on the news once she has been missing for for days. All characters end up involved in the same crisis, revolving around the fiancee's disappearance. Our psychic protagonist must find the truth. |
| picture above from www.ew.com/ew/article/review/ movie/0,6115,90897~1~,00.html |
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| Critique: The Gift is a cliche museum. It's one of the most cliche loaded pictures to be released in recent memory. It does not simply embrace cliches, but it relies on cliches. It depends on them, and hangs on to them for dear life. Every aspect of the film, every twist, every plot point, character profile, and personality has been copied from previous supernatural thrillers. It's almost astonishing that the writers were able to be so devastatingly unoriginal. There is not one unique thought in the whole film! The Gift should be shown at film classes as an example of extreme unoriginality, and as a warning of what not to do in making a film. Those to blame are predominately screenwriters Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson. Still, Sam Raimi, the director, employs his own technical cliches. He knowingly builds suspenseful moments without an ounce of class. Christopher Young, although usually dependable, puts out a score that has its moments, but ultimately provides - you guessed it, a lot of cliched music. Jamie Anderson, the cinematographer is much stronger, with some dark, attractive visuals. His consistent waving of the trees is very effective. As is the case with films with awesome casts, the acting is a given strength. The cast is so expansive and strong that not only are all the performances terrific, but when actors make mistakes other actors catch their fall and aid each them. That's what keeps the film from being constantly tedious. It really creates a few compelling moments, watching these fine professionals share conversation. The problem is in the end, with all their effort the script gives stale dialogue. The script is never fair to them. It's also too bad because not only are the stars performing well, so are the character actors and the minor members. It seems everyone but the actors were giving half efforts. By taking short cuts, and basing the script on cliches the film ends up being weak and unconvincing. Even the technical team applied cliched methods. I wouldn't recommend this film, however you've probably already seen it before, in bits and pieces in other films. review by supernothingman |