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The Gift

The Gift

List Price: $14.99
Your Price: $11.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not Enough Thought
Review: The "twists" were obvious, and the ending was a bit contrived, but this film features some great performances by Ribisi and Blanchett. The first half is effective in setting the mood for a great psychological southern horror piece, but the last 35 minutes seemed like a bad x-files episode.

This isn't the Raimi from THE EVIL DEAD, nor the Raimi from SPIDERMAN, it's a little of both, it borderlines on SILENCE OF THE LAMBS caliber psychological horror, and then falls into the pits of plastic hollywood mold.

Still, I've seen worse.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Clairvoyance clue's
Review: I liked this movie alot, I've enjoyed Cate Blanchett in many movies, but this has to be my favorite movie with her. I could've done without Katie Holmes, and her less than accurate acting skills. Even though her part was small, she still managed to annoy me. It was a great streach for Keanu Reeves. He was surprisingly good for his role, his "hey bill, I am the one" bland facial expressions he always seems to use never showed. He had alot of charisma in this. My greatest surprise was of all was Giovanni Ribisi, arguably the star of the film. Even, Greg Kinnear in his twisted romantic role was great. Aside from Katie Holmes this was movie had a perfect cast, great emotion, and a solid arua. And has dubbed Giovanni my new favorite actor.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It is really The Gift.
Review: ok I really love this movie.It is a great film.I love Dawson's Creek so I like Katie Holmes.It has superb acting along with a great story line!I remember watching th@ movie the 1st time it is just so suspensful!I screamed like a little girl when it shows the freaky Katie Holmes bathtub shot!oh my gosh!buy this film!its the only movie th@ got me scared of walking down the hallway @ night!buy it!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Recycled?
Review: Did Billy Bob Thorton watch "Fried Green Tomatoes" prior to co-writing "The Gift"? The scene on the courthouse steps with Buddy is way too familiar.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Well done;
Review: This was a very good movie; Director Raimi was so creative as he directed Cate Blanchett who held your attention as she became embroiled in a murder mystery in a southern town that did not approve of her psychic predictions via card readings. I was especially impressed with Giovanni Ribisi and cannot seem to figure how why a performance like his was not nominated for an Academy Award? Everyone else was wonderful and convincing; Keanu Reeves played a departure from his normal characters and did a great job! The suspense kept building, the sound track is compelling. Highly recommend!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Supsenseful Character-Driven Thriller!
Review: Annabelle 'Annie' Wilson (Cate Blanchett) is struggling to make ends meet and to make a life for herself and her two sons after her husband died suddenly. A small-town Georgia psychic, Annie tried to warn her husband about the upcoming accident, but he laughed it off. Haunted by what might have been, Annie turns her efforts to helping her clients.

Buddy Cole (Giovanni Ribisi) is a sweet, good-natured mechanic who is always willing to help Annie out, but he sometimes lashes out for apparently no reason at all. Annie cannot get Buddy to start looking internally to fix the problems and she cannot always give Buddy the time and attention that he needs...

Valerie Barksdale (Hilary Swank) is an abused, undereducated woman who is terrified to leave her husband. Fearful for Valerie's life, Annie encourages her to leave her redneck husband, Donnie (Keanu Reeves), but Valerie is too frightened. When Donnie discovers what Annie has been telling Valerie, he targets Annie and her three boys and does his best to terrify them into leaving his family alone.

When a friend drags Annie off to a country club event, Annie is surprised to discover that the sweet school principal, Wayne Collins (Greg Kinnear) who has been so helpful with her boys is engaged to Jessica King (Katie Holmes), the local princess. It is too bad, because Annie feels the first sparks of passion for Wayne, something she hasn't felt for anyone since her husband died. When Jessica shows up murdered a short time later, Annie starts hoping that maybe something will develop with Wayne. But when no leads and a lack of clues lead the local police to Annie's door, however reluctantly, Annie finds that Jessica's ghost is ready and eager to be found - and now the killer is after her...

The Gift was a moody and atmospheric psychological thriller that was made all the more suspenseful by the wonderful acting and slow-paced story that drove it. Cate Blanchett is stunning in the lead role and is completely believable as a small-town Southern woman, desperately clinging to the life that she knows. She is surrounded by a talented supporting cast, led by the surprisingly convincing Keanu Reeves as an abusive husband and ignorant redneck. Hilary Swank and Giovanni Ribisi have long since perfected the sympathetic victim role and Greg Kinnear is likeable in his supporting romantic role. The scenery was perfect and saturated with the emotions of the characters. Though there are plenty of holes in the story and some random sidelines that could have been cut out, the wonderful acting in this film should not be missed. Well worth your time to rent on a stormy evening - be sure to turn the lights down low...

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Good Premise, but......
Review: Well, worth seeing, about a psychic in the south (Cate Blanchett) enlisted to help find a missing girl (Katie Holmes. One star for a semi-original idea, another for Katie Holmes's (...). Yeah, it was OK. It's not like I want 2 hours of my life back, but I won't be investing another 2 hours anytime soon.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Talented cast lift this out of mediocrity
Review: The Gift is destined to always be a three star out of five film, though don't let that dissuade you from watching it, because that's not to say that it's worthless. Far from it. Co-scripted by Billy Bob Thornton, The Gift relates the rather straightforward story of a woman (Cate Blanchett) haunted by her psychic visions of the murder of a young girl (Katie Holmes) from the backwater town she lives in. Red herrings abound, almost to the point of ridiculousness where you begin to suspect pretty much every character bar Blanchett's.

What lifts the movie out of its mediocrity is the fact that it's cast does so much with the slight material they've been handed. Blanchett proves that Elizabeth was no fluke, giving a typically strong performance of a woman on the edge of breakdown. Given her recent casting as lead in movies such as Charlotte Gray and Heaven, along with some high profile supporting roles in Lord of the Rings and The Talented Mr. Ripley, this is one actress who's undoubtedly going to go far. Every bit as good as Blanchett though is Giovanni Ribisi, playing a deranged man-child who forms an unwholesome attachment to Blanchett. His weepy yet electrifying performance rivets the movie in place in a much more powerful way that Keanu Reeves' bearded psycho could ever manage. Surprisingly, director Sam Raimi has also managed to garner Oscar-winner Hilary Swank who, despite turning in a solid performance, gives the impression that Boys Don't Cry might have been the best role she's ever likely to get in a while if she's taking relatively small roles in something like this.

Whilst this never reaches the highs of other recent ghost stories (The Sixth Sense, The Others and the Japanese version of Ring are all much better), this is nothing short of a solid effort from the director of zombie classic Evil Dead, and is rarely short of compelling. If it lacks a little originality in the script give it some credit; there's a place for small-ish movies like this, especially given Raimi's latest blockbuster Spiderman. In short - good, but no classic.


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