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I wanted to like 'The Gift', I really did. I loved director Sam Raimi's 'Evil Dead' series, which were superbly entertaining gory horror films, and I expected 'The Gift' to be the movie that would show me that he'd matured, and was able to produce equally entertaining popular horror or suspense films. I was greatly disappointed - 'The Gift' is very much a by-the-book, generic whodunnit, with the usual plot misdirection driving the story, but we'll come to that later...
THE PLOT
Set among the mangrove swamps of Georgia, 'The Gift' tells the story of Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchett). Annie is a fortune-teller (though she dislikes the use of such a crass term, instead preferring to refer to giving "psychic readings"), and a single mum struggling to bring up three sons. She gets by on the meagre income from her deceased husband's life insurance, and on the donations of the regular clients who come to her for readings, using Zener ESP cards.
One of Annie's regular clients is Valerie Barksdale (Hilary Swank), who is married to wife-beater and all round bad guy Donnie (Keanu Reeves). Annie continually advises Valerie to leave her abusive husband, and when Donnie finds out, he threatens Annie, accusing her of being a Satan-worshipping witch.
Another of Annie's clients is Buddy Cole (Giovanni Ribisi), a mentally disturbed mechanic, who is struggling with the inner demons of his relationship with his father, relying on Annie to psychoanalyse his past.
Mike, the eldest of Annie's sons, is misbehaving at school, and Annie has to go in to meet with the school principal, Wayne Collins (Greg Kinnear). While she's there, she meets Collins's fiancée, the decorous Jessica King (Katie Holmes), who recognises her as the town's psychic, and drawls "D'ya think we'll live happily ever after?" Um... no... in fact, upon hearing this question, Annie gets a vision of the fate that awaits Jessica.
Before long, Jessica disappears, and after exhausting every possibility they can think of, at the instigation of Wayne and Jessica's father, Kenneth King (Chelcie Ross), the police begrudgingly approach Annie for her help.
THE FILM
Anyone who has seen the trailer for 'The Gift' has probably already guessed Jessica's fate, and the person who is responsible for what has happened. In fact, after watching the trailer, I felt I confident that I knew the answers to both of these mysteries from the information they'd provided. So, I'd therefore assumed that the film wasn't so much a whodunnit, as a sociological drama examining how the population in general would react to the main "witness" to the crime being someone who hadn't actually witnessed it.
No, I was wrong, the film is almost exclusively taken up with the investigation of who was responsible for Jessica's disappearance and why, and since I'd already correctly ascertained both of these, it was simply a case of waiting for the film to catch up with what I'd seen would happen in the trailer. At times, this was a staggeringly dull experience, as the film does little to fill its frustratingly slow-paced 110 minutes.
I'm not sure to what extent I blame the trailer for adversely affecting my rating. Certainly it led me to believe that the film would be something more substantial than it in fact was, and more importantly, it actually spoilt what was actually the main point of the movie – i.e. the mysteries of what happened to Jessica, and who was responsible. Frankly, given how badly the script and plot of the film were constructed, I would like to think that I would have worked it out anyway pretty swiftly. However, this is also just another case of the marketing department of a movie company providing too much information in the trailer about the content of the movie. This is something that is increasingly irritating with new movies – the showing of fundamental or important scenes from movies in the trailer – and something which particularly frustrates me at the moment.
Dialogue was merely functional for the most part, which was disappointing, considering that it had been adapted from a script written by Billy Bob Thornton, who had previously written the outstandingly good 'Sling Blade'. Most conversations, particularly those which advanced the plot in any way, seemed unconvincing and rushed, however, Annie's exchanges with Buddy Cole were consistently well-written and plausible.
Given that many of the conversations seemed rushed, it is odd that I came out with the feeling that the film was very slow paced. I can only assume that this was due to issues of general pacing in the film – there are large portions of film where very little of any note actually occurred. Add to this the fact that the story was pretty insubstantial, and you begin to understand why it seemed slow – 110 minutes to reveal something that most of the audience had probably already worked out?
The acting was mediocre from most of the actors involved, though Cate Blanchett does put it in a very powerful performance as the struggling single mum, and Giovanni Ribisi produces his usual (stereotyped?) performance as a socially stunted young man. Keanu Reeves is considerably better than I'd feared, though still seems to be having difficulty breaking free of his Bill & Ted 'Whoa!' heritage, producing an accent which only vaguely approximates that of a deep South redneck. Greg Kinnear, however, is woefully unconvincing as the brooding principal.
Oh, and the end of the film features an inconsequential supernatural twist. Compulsory for this type of film, I gather. If you don't spot it coming a mile off, you're just not trying, and you can't be my friend any more.
On the positive side, there are several great suspenseful moments in the film, along with some great direction by Raimi, and it is these that save the movie from being a complete disaster. However, having said that, once you've been surprised by the film a couple of times, you get used to the techniques Raimi uses to heighten tension, and the further attempts to surprise the audience fall somewhat flat. Look out for Raimi's trademark shot of clouds moving across in front of a full moon, but be sure and notice how odd it is that every time there's an external night-time shot, there's a full moon. Do the plot-important moments in the film only happen once per month, and conveniently always on the night of the full moon, for maximum atmosphere?
CONCLUSIONS
'The Gift' is not a completely disastrous film, but it does try to achieve much more than it actually manages, and because of this it comes off feeling very disappointing. The plot is weak, and painfully predictable, meaning that the audience will spend much of the film waiting for the story to catch up with the conclusions that they've already drawn. There are some good performances in the film, but they are only really appreciable in certain scenes, and even the good direction and suspense don't do enough to save it.
If someone gave me this 'Gift', I'd probably ask them if they kept the receipt, so I could pop it back to Redbus Film Distributors and ask for my money back...
THE PLOT
Set among the mangrove swamps of Georgia, 'The Gift' tells the story of Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchett). Annie is a fortune-teller (though she dislikes the use of such a crass term, instead preferring to refer to giving "psychic readings"), and a single mum struggling to bring up three sons. She gets by on the meagre income from her deceased husband's life insurance, and on the donations of the regular clients who come to her for readings, using Zener ESP cards.
One of Annie's regular clients is Valerie Barksdale (Hilary Swank), who is married to wife-beater and all round bad guy Donnie (Keanu Reeves). Annie continually advises Valerie to leave her abusive husband, and when Donnie finds out, he threatens Annie, accusing her of being a Satan-worshipping witch.
Another of Annie's clients is Buddy Cole (Giovanni Ribisi), a mentally disturbed mechanic, who is struggling with the inner demons of his relationship with his father, relying on Annie to psychoanalyse his past.
Mike, the eldest of Annie's sons, is misbehaving at school, and Annie has to go in to meet with the school principal, Wayne Collins (Greg Kinnear). While she's there, she meets Collins's fiancée, the decorous Jessica King (Katie Holmes), who recognises her as the town's psychic, and drawls "D'ya think we'll live happily ever after?" Um... no... in fact, upon hearing this question, Annie gets a vision of the fate that awaits Jessica.
Before long, Jessica disappears, and after exhausting every possibility they can think of, at the instigation of Wayne and Jessica's father, Kenneth King (Chelcie Ross), the police begrudgingly approach Annie for her help.
THE FILM
Anyone who has seen the trailer for 'The Gift' has probably already guessed Jessica's fate, and the person who is responsible for what has happened. In fact, after watching the trailer, I felt I confident that I knew the answers to both of these mysteries from the information they'd provided. So, I'd therefore assumed that the film wasn't so much a whodunnit, as a sociological drama examining how the population in general would react to the main "witness" to the crime being someone who hadn't actually witnessed it.
No, I was wrong, the film is almost exclusively taken up with the investigation of who was responsible for Jessica's disappearance and why, and since I'd already correctly ascertained both of these, it was simply a case of waiting for the film to catch up with what I'd seen would happen in the trailer. At times, this was a staggeringly dull experience, as the film does little to fill its frustratingly slow-paced 110 minutes.
I'm not sure to what extent I blame the trailer for adversely affecting my rating. Certainly it led me to believe that the film would be something more substantial than it in fact was, and more importantly, it actually spoilt what was actually the main point of the movie – i.e. the mysteries of what happened to Jessica, and who was responsible. Frankly, given how badly the script and plot of the film were constructed, I would like to think that I would have worked it out anyway pretty swiftly. However, this is also just another case of the marketing department of a movie company providing too much information in the trailer about the content of the movie. This is something that is increasingly irritating with new movies – the showing of fundamental or important scenes from movies in the trailer – and something which particularly frustrates me at the moment.
Dialogue was merely functional for the most part, which was disappointing, considering that it had been adapted from a script written by Billy Bob Thornton, who had previously written the outstandingly good 'Sling Blade'. Most conversations, particularly those which advanced the plot in any way, seemed unconvincing and rushed, however, Annie's exchanges with Buddy Cole were consistently well-written and plausible.
Given that many of the conversations seemed rushed, it is odd that I came out with the feeling that the film was very slow paced. I can only assume that this was due to issues of general pacing in the film – there are large portions of film where very little of any note actually occurred. Add to this the fact that the story was pretty insubstantial, and you begin to understand why it seemed slow – 110 minutes to reveal something that most of the audience had probably already worked out?
The acting was mediocre from most of the actors involved, though Cate Blanchett does put it in a very powerful performance as the struggling single mum, and Giovanni Ribisi produces his usual (stereotyped?) performance as a socially stunted young man. Keanu Reeves is considerably better than I'd feared, though still seems to be having difficulty breaking free of his Bill & Ted 'Whoa!' heritage, producing an accent which only vaguely approximates that of a deep South redneck. Greg Kinnear, however, is woefully unconvincing as the brooding principal.
Oh, and the end of the film features an inconsequential supernatural twist. Compulsory for this type of film, I gather. If you don't spot it coming a mile off, you're just not trying, and you can't be my friend any more.
On the positive side, there are several great suspenseful moments in the film, along with some great direction by Raimi, and it is these that save the movie from being a complete disaster. However, having said that, once you've been surprised by the film a couple of times, you get used to the techniques Raimi uses to heighten tension, and the further attempts to surprise the audience fall somewhat flat. Look out for Raimi's trademark shot of clouds moving across in front of a full moon, but be sure and notice how odd it is that every time there's an external night-time shot, there's a full moon. Do the plot-important moments in the film only happen once per month, and conveniently always on the night of the full moon, for maximum atmosphere?
CONCLUSIONS
'The Gift' is not a completely disastrous film, but it does try to achieve much more than it actually manages, and because of this it comes off feeling very disappointing. The plot is weak, and painfully predictable, meaning that the audience will spend much of the film waiting for the story to catch up with the conclusions that they've already drawn. There are some good performances in the film, but they are only really appreciable in certain scenes, and even the good direction and suspense don't do enough to save it.
If someone gave me this 'Gift', I'd probably ask them if they kept the receipt, so I could pop it back to Redbus Film Distributors and ask for my money back...
I wanted to like 'The Gift', I really did. I loved director Sam Raimi's 'Evil Dead' series, which were superbly entertaining gory horror films, and I expected 'The Gift' to be the movie that would show me that he'd matured, and was able to produce equally entertaining popular horror or suspense films. I was greatly disappointed - 'The Gift' is very much a by-the-book, generic whodunnit, with the usual plot misdirection driving the story, but we'll come to that later...
THE PLOT
Set among the mangrove swamps of Georgia, 'The Gift' tells the story of Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchett). Annie is a fortune-teller (though she dislikes the use of such a crass term, instead preferring to refer to giving "psychic readings"), and a single mum struggling to bring up three sons. She gets by on the meagre income from her deceased husband's life insurance, and on the donations of the regular clients who come to her for readings, using Zener ESP cards.
One of Annie's regular clients is Valerie Barksdale (Hilary Swank), who is married to wife-beater and all round bad guy Donnie (Keanu Reeves). Annie continually advises Valerie to leave her abusive husband, and when Donnie finds out, he threatens Annie, accusing her of being a Satan-worshipping witch.
Another of Annie's clients is Buddy Cole (Giovanni Ribisi), a mentally disturbed mechanic, who is struggling with the inner demons of his relationship with his father, relying on Annie to psychoanalyse his past.
Mike, the eldest of Annie's sons, is misbehaving at school, and Annie has to go in to meet with the school principal, Wayne Collins (Greg Kinnear). While she's there, she meets Collins's fiancée, the decorous Jessica King (Katie Holmes), who recognises her as the town's psychic, and drawls "D'ya think we'll live happily ever after?" Um... no... in fact, upon hearing this question, Annie gets a vision of the fate that awaits Jessica.
Before long, Jessica disappears, and after exhausting every possibility they can think of, at the instigation of Wayne and Jessica's father, Kenneth King (Chelcie Ross), the police begrudgingly approach Annie for her help.
THE FILM
Anyone who has seen the trailer for 'The Gift' has probably already guessed Jessica's fate, and the person who is responsible for what has happened. In fact, after watching the trailer, I felt I confident that I knew the answers to both of these mysteries from the information they'd provided. So, I'd therefore assumed that the film wasn't so much a whodunnit, as a sociological drama examining how the population in general would react to the main "witness" to the crime being someone who hadn't actually witnessed it.
No, I was wrong, the film is almost exclusively taken up with the investigation of who was responsible for Jessica's disappearance and why, and since I'd already correctly ascertained both of these, it was simply a case of waiting for the film to catch up with what I'd seen would happen in the trailer. At times, this was a staggeringly dull experience, as the film does little to fill its frustratingly slow-paced 110 minutes.
I'm not sure to what extent I blame the trailer for adversely affecting my rating. Certainly it led me to believe that the film would be something more substantial than it in fact was, and more importantly, it actually spoilt what was actually the main point of the movie – i.e. the mysteries of what happened to Jessica, and who was responsible. Frankly, given how badly the script and plot of the film were constructed, I would like to think that I would have worked it out anyway pretty swiftly. However, this is also just another case of the marketing department of a movie company providing too much information in the trailer about the content of the movie. This is something that is increasingly irritating with new movies – the showing of fundamental or important scenes from movies in the trailer – and something which particularly frustrates me at the moment.
Dialogue was merely functional for the most part, which was disappointing, considering that it had been adapted from a script written by Billy Bob Thornton, who had previously written the outstandingly good 'Sling Blade'. Most conversations, particularly those which advanced the plot in any way, seemed unconvincing and rushed, however, Annie's exchanges with Buddy Cole were consistently well-written and plausible.
Given that many of the conversations seemed rushed, it is odd that I came out with the feeling that the film was very slow paced. I can only assume that this was due to issues of general pacing in the film – there are large portions of film where very little of any note actually occurred. Add to this the fact that the story was pretty insubstantial, and you begin to understand why it seemed slow – 110 minutes to reveal something that most of the audience had probably already worked out?
The acting was mediocre from most of the actors involved, though Cate Blanchett does put it in a very powerful performance as the struggling single mum, and Giovanni Ribisi produces his usual (stereotyped?) performance as a socially stunted young man. Keanu Reeves is considerably better than I'd feared, though still seems to be having difficulty breaking free of his Bill & Ted 'Whoa!' heritage, producing an accent which only vaguely approximates that of a deep South redneck. Greg Kinnear, however, is woefully unconvincing as the brooding principal.
Oh, and the end of the film features an inconsequential supernatural twist. Compulsory for this type of film, I gather. If you don't spot it coming a mile off, you're just not trying, and you can't be my friend any more.
On the positive side, there are several great suspenseful moments in the film, along with some great direction by Raimi, and it is these that save the movie from being a complete disaster. However, having said that, once you've been surprised by the film a couple of times, you get used to the techniques Raimi uses to heighten tension, and the further attempts to surprise the audience fall somewhat flat. Look out for Raimi's trademark shot of clouds moving across in front of a full moon, but be sure and notice how odd it is that every time there's an external night-time shot, there's a full moon. Do the plot-important moments in the film only happen once per month, and conveniently always on the night of the full moon, for maximum atmosphere?
CONCLUSIONS
'The Gift' is not a completely disastrous film, but it does try to achieve much more than it actually manages, and because of this it comes off feeling very disappointing. The plot is weak, and painfully predictable, meaning that the audience will spend much of the film waiting for the story to catch up with the conclusions that they've already drawn. There are some good performances in the film, but they are only really appreciable in certain scenes, and even the good direction and suspense don't do enough to save it.
If someone gave me this 'Gift', I'd probably ask them if they kept the receipt, so I could pop it back to Redbus Film Distributors and ask for my money back...
THE PLOT
Set among the mangrove swamps of Georgia, 'The Gift' tells the story of Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchett). Annie is a fortune-teller (though she dislikes the use of such a crass term, instead preferring to refer to giving "psychic readings"), and a single mum struggling to bring up three sons. She gets by on the meagre income from her deceased husband's life insurance, and on the donations of the regular clients who come to her for readings, using Zener ESP cards.
One of Annie's regular clients is Valerie Barksdale (Hilary Swank), who is married to wife-beater and all round bad guy Donnie (Keanu Reeves). Annie continually advises Valerie to leave her abusive husband, and when Donnie finds out, he threatens Annie, accusing her of being a Satan-worshipping witch.
Another of Annie's clients is Buddy Cole (Giovanni Ribisi), a mentally disturbed mechanic, who is struggling with the inner demons of his relationship with his father, relying on Annie to psychoanalyse his past.
Mike, the eldest of Annie's sons, is misbehaving at school, and Annie has to go in to meet with the school principal, Wayne Collins (Greg Kinnear). While she's there, she meets Collins's fiancée, the decorous Jessica King (Katie Holmes), who recognises her as the town's psychic, and drawls "D'ya think we'll live happily ever after?" Um... no... in fact, upon hearing this question, Annie gets a vision of the fate that awaits Jessica.
Before long, Jessica disappears, and after exhausting every possibility they can think of, at the instigation of Wayne and Jessica's father, Kenneth King (Chelcie Ross), the police begrudgingly approach Annie for her help.
THE FILM
Anyone who has seen the trailer for 'The Gift' has probably already guessed Jessica's fate, and the person who is responsible for what has happened. In fact, after watching the trailer, I felt I confident that I knew the answers to both of these mysteries from the information they'd provided. So, I'd therefore assumed that the film wasn't so much a whodunnit, as a sociological drama examining how the population in general would react to the main "witness" to the crime being someone who hadn't actually witnessed it.
No, I was wrong, the film is almost exclusively taken up with the investigation of who was responsible for Jessica's disappearance and why, and since I'd already correctly ascertained both of these, it was simply a case of waiting for the film to catch up with what I'd seen would happen in the trailer. At times, this was a staggeringly dull experience, as the film does little to fill its frustratingly slow-paced 110 minutes.
I'm not sure to what extent I blame the trailer for adversely affecting my rating. Certainly it led me to believe that the film would be something more substantial than it in fact was, and more importantly, it actually spoilt what was actually the main point of the movie – i.e. the mysteries of what happened to Jessica, and who was responsible. Frankly, given how badly the script and plot of the film were constructed, I would like to think that I would have worked it out anyway pretty swiftly. However, this is also just another case of the marketing department of a movie company providing too much information in the trailer about the content of the movie. This is something that is increasingly irritating with new movies – the showing of fundamental or important scenes from movies in the trailer – and something which particularly frustrates me at the moment.
Dialogue was merely functional for the most part, which was disappointing, considering that it had been adapted from a script written by Billy Bob Thornton, who had previously written the outstandingly good 'Sling Blade'. Most conversations, particularly those which advanced the plot in any way, seemed unconvincing and rushed, however, Annie's exchanges with Buddy Cole were consistently well-written and plausible.
Given that many of the conversations seemed rushed, it is odd that I came out with the feeling that the film was very slow paced. I can only assume that this was due to issues of general pacing in the film – there are large portions of film where very little of any note actually occurred. Add to this the fact that the story was pretty insubstantial, and you begin to understand why it seemed slow – 110 minutes to reveal something that most of the audience had probably already worked out?
The acting was mediocre from most of the actors involved, though Cate Blanchett does put it in a very powerful performance as the struggling single mum, and Giovanni Ribisi produces his usual (stereotyped?) performance as a socially stunted young man. Keanu Reeves is considerably better than I'd feared, though still seems to be having difficulty breaking free of his Bill & Ted 'Whoa!' heritage, producing an accent which only vaguely approximates that of a deep South redneck. Greg Kinnear, however, is woefully unconvincing as the brooding principal.
Oh, and the end of the film features an inconsequential supernatural twist. Compulsory for this type of film, I gather. If you don't spot it coming a mile off, you're just not trying, and you can't be my friend any more.
On the positive side, there are several great suspenseful moments in the film, along with some great direction by Raimi, and it is these that save the movie from being a complete disaster. However, having said that, once you've been surprised by the film a couple of times, you get used to the techniques Raimi uses to heighten tension, and the further attempts to surprise the audience fall somewhat flat. Look out for Raimi's trademark shot of clouds moving across in front of a full moon, but be sure and notice how odd it is that every time there's an external night-time shot, there's a full moon. Do the plot-important moments in the film only happen once per month, and conveniently always on the night of the full moon, for maximum atmosphere?
CONCLUSIONS
'The Gift' is not a completely disastrous film, but it does try to achieve much more than it actually manages, and because of this it comes off feeling very disappointing. The plot is weak, and painfully predictable, meaning that the audience will spend much of the film waiting for the story to catch up with the conclusions that they've already drawn. There are some good performances in the film, but they are only really appreciable in certain scenes, and even the good direction and suspense don't do enough to save it.
If someone gave me this 'Gift', I'd probably ask them if they kept the receipt, so I could pop it back to Redbus Film Distributors and ask for my money back...