Rating: 
Summary: Lots of good things in a confusing movie
Review: The box indicates one of the movie's strong points. Can they cram more actors in good roles in one shot? And these are only the top six. There are solid performances not only from these six, but several supporting roles that make this a great demonstration of the craft. Standing out in my eyes among all the performances is Keanu Reeves. He plays not only a total skunk, but a potentially dangerous total skunk in a refreshing change of roles. But what makes the movie interesting is that he may or may not be the worst of the bunch. There are other members of the cast who have their own negative and/or violent capabilities. The title refers to powers that lead actress Cate Blanchett posesses as part of her psychic profession. She is recently widowed, barely scraping by with her family, and making a living by reading cards for people. She is regarded with disdain by some in town, and amusement by others. But there is also a large enough clientle in town that hang on her every word. This group consists mostly of strongly stereotyped poor white trash. My problem with the movie is what exactly constitutes her "Gift". I went through the film twice, and pulled in a lot more the second time based on what you know from the first viewing. But to me it never becomes clear EXACTLY what these powers are. Moreover, she not only doesn't have a grasp of what they are, but by the movie's end, is still far from being able to control them. This almost gets her killed, and I got the feeling of being unsatisfied the way they left it. Still, I recommend it, and would probably pick up more with further viewings. I'm not sure whether this is a good thing or not.
Rating: 
Summary: Spectacular and rivetting.
Review: Without overdoing it, Raimi has created a very memorable and eerie film. Cate Blanchett is perfection as usual...compelling to watch. The film's true gems are merely in its terribly startling horror shots...particularly one of a fiddler near a pond. It's very reminiscent of Twin Peaks. Anyone willing to buckle down and throw themselves into this film will reap much from the investment...but admittedly, there is no feel-goodness. Kids under 17 probably shouldn't see it at all unless you want nightmares (and other issues) on your hands.
Rating:
Summary: 'A' list talent shines in 'B' moive
Review: The Gift was made by a group of people who themselves are extraordinarily gifted. Director Sam Raimi and co-writer Tom Epperson have been honored at many sci-fi film festivals. Its other writer, Billy Bob Thornton has won an Oscar and been nominated for two others. Hilary Swank won a Best Actress Oscar for Boys Don't Cry, while nominations have gone to Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth and to Greg Kinnear for As Good as it Gets. Giovanni Rabisi, one of the hottest young actors around, has won awards for his TV work. Keanu Reeves may never be Oscar material, but he has received a number of Blockbuster Awards, while Katie Holmes has been honored at the MTV Awards. Collectively, these people have been involved in some of the most memorable movies of the last ten years. And that may explain the problem that lies at the heart of The Gift. Had this movie been made by relative unknowns, it might have been hailed as a cult classic. As it is, it is overwhelmed by all that talent. Cate Blanchett plays Annie, a small town girl doing what she can to raise two young sons after the tragic and sudden death of her husband. She has what her grandmother called 'the gift'. She's a psychic, and to augment her income, she does card readings for many of the locals. She also fills her sessions with common sense advice. For example, she tells Valerie [Swank] to leave her abusive, redneck husband, Donnie [Reeves]. She advises Buddy [Ribisi], the local psycho, to face his demons by finding the source of his formidable anger. Annie always wants the best for everyone around her. One day she is called to her son's grammar school because he has been in a fight. While talking to Wayne [Kinnear], the principal, she meets Jessica [Holmes], Wayne's fiance. Suddenly, she has a horrible vision about Jessica, which she keeps to herself. When the girl goes missing, the local police chief, dubious but without any leads, goes to Annie to ask her to use her gift to find Jessica. Things soon go from bad to worse, not only for Wayne and Jessica, but also for Annie and most of the rest of the characters. Annie finds herself in serious trouble, and her gift turns out to be both a serious liability and the only thing that can save her. The Gift is a salute to Southern Gothic and contains every stock character found in that genre. It was filmed on location around Savannah, GA, which explains why it is so beautiful to look at. Needless to say, this cast does an impeccable job. Every character is quite believable. The dialog written by Thornton and Epperson rings true, and Raimi's direction is steady and assured. The problem is that the material is that of a 'B' picture and is hardly worth the concerted efforts of all this 'A-list' talent. What its producers need to learn is that, when you assemble this many powerhouses both in front of and behind the camera, people's expectations are going to be through the roof. So, while The Gift is a neat little psychological thriller, it can't help but disappoint.
Rating:
Summary: Nice movie -- not too original, but I love Blanchett
Review: I would have liked to give "The Gift" a higher rating and I'm sure I would have if it had come out ten or twelve years ago. However, the movie has some pretty obvious influences and even though I like all of its forebears, I was never impressed with its originality. Cate Blanchett plays a single mother with fuzzy abilities to predict the future and see scenes from the past that she wasn't present for. The plot concerns a vicious murder which she is called on to help solve. It's a potentially compelling storyline, but I've seen it before: the victim is a secretly promiscuous daughter of a local businessman, we are shown the dark underbelly of a small town, there are confusing dream sequences related to the murder -- it was like watching "Twin Peaks" again. Those who have seen "The Sixth Sense" will also experience deja vu when they see "The Gift". I even was reminded a bit of "Eve's Bayou". Also, "The Gift" is supposed to be creepy, but it relies too much on the hoary device of close-up shots of Blanchett when we know that someone who may-or-may-not be threatening lurks behind her. The only points where I was scared during the movie were during the surreal dream sequences; a one-second shot of a fiddler in a swamp was somehow especially frightening. The director of "The Gift" (Sam Raimi) also did "A Simple Plan", a movie I loved -- in that one he did a great job of creating a forbidding mood and misdirecting the viewer. In "The Gift" there is the standard cycling through different "obvious" murder suspects and not as much real suspense, in my opinion. I don't mean to complain too much, though -- I still enjoy a good supernatural swamp noir, which this movie is, and the acting is decent. Katie Holmes appears have grown a foot and a half to play a tall young southern socialite, Keanu Reeves is fine as a snarling wife-beater, Giovanni Ribisi is effectively over-the-top as an emotionally disturbed mechanic, Greg Kinnear does his sweet-guy thing, and Cate Blanchett shines as the gifted woman trying to raise her boys while working as a "reader". Even if she didn't have three kids in this movie she'd still come off as warm and maternal -- she takes responsibility for all of the people who come to her to get their future read. She's great. ... All in all I think "The Gift" is worth watching; it effectively cobbles together elements of other supernatural whodunits and does a credible job of creating the small-town-with-dark-secrets setting that David Lynch has popularized.
Rating: 
Summary: Keanu Reeves's best film!
Review: I first saw this movie on TV being reviewed as a very well done film. The real reson I wanted to see this was because of the way Keanu Reeves looked in it. When I watched it in the theaters I was so suprised to see Keanu do this. He plays an abusive husband in it, and is one of his best performances I've ever seen. The thing that strikes me as "odd" is that all the husbands and fathers are all abusive to they're children or wife. it's actually kind of stupid. But it is creepy and well done. Billy Bob Thornton could have done a better job in writing it though. Over all, you'd want to see this one and it is well done in several ways. My real high rating goes to Keanu Reeves's acting. No film has him acting as good as this. I'd guess that people who like well told and creepy stories would want to buy this one. Hats off to Keanu Reeves!!
Rating:
Summary: A Rare Gem Of A Film ... And A Woman
Review: A marvelous little gem of a film, THE GIFT takes terrific advantage (and greats great mileage) of Cate Blanchett, an Academy Award caliber actress who plays Annie Wilson, an every day Southerner (and the drawl is perfectly hypnotic) who has an explanable gift of reading cards to see a person's past, present, or future ... the story takes a few too many chances to nail down her precognition to any one era of the film's life. Widowed and raising three boys on her own, Annie decides to use her gift and accept charitable donations from those who seek her out for her fortune-telling advice. However, when one of her client's husbands (played to surprisingly good results by Keanu Reeves) takes offense to the advice being provided his abused wife, Annie begins to question even the use of her own gift for every day benefit. The death of an area socialite (Katie Holmes, who bares her feminine wiles here, folks) brings the police calling, broadening the narrative scope of who in town could possibly be the killer. While never 'seeing' him commit the act, Annie perceives his guilt, and the abusive husband is taken away. It doesn't take long for her to realize that she has misused her talent and, perhaps, placed the wrong man behind bars. The film's greatest strength is Blanchett. Photographed with an aura of beauty typically reserved from screen sirens the likes of Michelle Pfeiffer, Blanchett is magnetic; her beauty is as deftly committed to celluloid as is her psychic ability, and, while saying little, she commands a presence while onscreen that outshines nearly any weakness in a script reminescent of territory normally reserved for TV's THE X FILES. If THE GIFT has any faults, it's perhaps that it succumbs into a kind of audience-induced predictability in its latter half, a fault very common to many thrillers who drop the act of subtlety. The innocent is played up to be the killer, and the killer is played up to be the victim; however, a wry little twist saves the ending from being entirely formulaic, leaving the viewer something to think about instead of a bad taste in the mouth.
Rating:
Summary: THE ALMOST PERFECT GIFT
Review: A fortune-teller uses her psychic powers to help the police catch the killer responsible for a gruesome small town murder.
For all its clever twists and turns, this gripping suspense thriller is spoiled by a weak, unsatisfying ending. Nevertheless, polished performances from a top-notch cast - including the brilliant Cate Blanchett - makes this a movie well worth adding to your collection.
Special mention for Katie Holmes in another small, supporting role who again shows the darker side to her sweet Joey Potter persona in Dawson's Creek (check her out in the brilliant Wonder Boys as well). The cutesy girl-next-door has finally come of age, growing with maturity as an actress into a leading lady to watch our for in the future!
Rating:
Summary: Lovely movie, lousy predictable ending
Review: Ms. Blanchett was wonderful, the story was lovely, but the ending and who turned out to be the murderer was just a huge disappointment.
The actors, Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi, Greg Kinnear, Swank, and Keanu Reeves were fabulous. So well-acted.
I am so tired of not seeing Greg Kinnear get the best roles though. He deserves better roles Hollywood!
Rating:
Summary: Great performance
Review: There is not much I can or want to add what other people have already mentioned. While it is certainly recommendable to buy, I find the end a little predictable. That is why I only gave four stars. Cate Blanchett, Keanu Reeves and all the others deserve five stars for acting. One more point: certain things seem to be standard in a hollywood production when the movie takes place in the South. That is either a Klansmen appears or a slave owner that beats up his slaves continuously or, as it is in this case, a redneck wife-beater (played well by Keanu Reeves) who shows no tolerance for his wife's excursions to the fortune teller (Cate Blanchett) and obviously beats her up badly. Now, if you are not offended by these eternal stereotypes, the movie is enjoyable. However, it is about time to make a film that depicts Southerners as they are: as normal human beings with all the good and bad sites to it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Cate Blanchett Vehicle
Review: This is basically a ghost story. A woman in the South has a lot of trouble raising her three kids after the death of her husband. Money is hard to come by but she has a gift, a sort of sixth sense which allows her to tell fortunes. In reality her gift gives her a sort of insight into the people she sees and she tries to give them support for their problems and practical advice. The plot hook is that a murder occurs and the Cate Blanchett is able through her gift to find the body of the woman who has been killed. This leads to the conviction of a brutal although innocent man of her death. The film is slowly paced and relies more on the acting performances and atmosphere to build a story rather than relying on pyrotechnics. The key to the film is Blanchett as the central character. Keanu Reeves also is able to build a feel of menace. Coming away from seeing the film it is hard to describe in an effective way that it is able to convey a sense of place and to convey mood and astrosphere. It is however a good and entertaining film.
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