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| Gift, The |
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  (8/10)
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Runtime: 111 |
| Public Rating: 8.50 (8 votes) |
Director: Sam Raimi |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Thriller/Drama |
Year: 2001 |
| Writer(s): Billy Bob Thornton, Tom Epperson |
| Reviewed by: Arturo García Lasca |
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When Sam Raimi directed the 1998 film "A Simple Plan" I had a very good impression of him; When 1999's "For Love of the Game" came out I was a bit disappointed with him, but with "The Gift" he shows us all how good, and in this particular case, how thrilling his work can be.
Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchett) is a fortune teller who has a gift that allows her to see -or dream- events that haven't happened yet; costumers go to her looking for advice, and after reading the cards Annie gives them advice on what to do. Each client gives Annie a 'donation' which helps her mantain herself and her three young sons.
Valerie Barksdale (Hilary Swank) gets beaten by her husband quite often, and everytime she goes to Annie's, she tells Valerie to leave her husband Donny, before something worse happens, but Valerie is the type of dumb (or too dependant) woman that just can't leave her husband, no matter how bad he beats her. When Donnie Barksdale (Keanu Reeves) finds out about this, he threatens Annie and her family and tells her not to talk to Valerie again. Meanwhile, Annie's son had a problem at school and she had to talk to the counselor, Wayne Collins (Greg Kinnear); while being at his office Annie meets Wayne's fiancee, a young girl daughter of a respected man, Jessica King (Katie Holmes). Annie would later find out that Jessica isn't exactly being loyal to Wayne, since she sees her with another man at a party. There is also the character played by Giovanni Ribisi: Buddy Cole, an unstable young man who has had all sorts of problems and considers Annie to be his only friend.
Saying that someone gets killed and saying who it is would be no spoiler, but still I think I'll leave that to you, once you watch the film. Director Raimi did a great job here, making you change your mind about who you think is the killer. The whole atmosphere and sounds are very intense and suspenseful, Annie's visions are a bit scary, the visual effects used are pretty good and you -almost- never know what's going to happen next. I never knew Billy Bob Thornton was such a good writer, he did a pretty good job with this story. All the performances in this film are believable, the entire cast members knew what they were doing.
Now you might wonder why the 2 missing stars in the rating? Well, first of all, if I could use fractions of a star, I'd have given this film an 8.5. Now, why the missing star and a half? Because the twist(s) weren't so good as other I have seen, and I think they didn't use this material in the best way. The story has a lot of potential, but adding one or two more characters and making nearly all of them seem guilty at some points would have given the opportunity to add at least one more twist and much more suspense to this film. Still, it's pretty good the way it was done, so I'd recommend it anytime.
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