The
Gift (2000)
Sam Raimi is an awesome director. He gets a pretty
watchable film from a seeming first-draft script by
Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson here. He also gets
an awesome supporting performance from Keanu Reeves
who seems happier than a pig in shit to get a chance
at a meaty bad guy role. And, of course, his film is
a sumptuous visual feast.
But he can make mistakes too. Giovanni Ribisi is typecast
yet again as a semi-retard who becomes more irritating
here than ever before. And the script is so "Made for
Lifetime-TV" typical and dull in patches that it is
really little more than a short film expanded way beyond
it's grasp into the feature format.
The film centers about Cate Blanchett as a Southern
widow with three young sons who has the titular "gift,"
a psychic ability. The film rambles about forever in
establishing several characters including abusive husband
Keanu and white- trash wife Hilary Swank, Ribisi's troubled
garage mechanic, school principal Greg Kinnear and his
ritzy fiance Katie Holmes. When Holmes eventually comes
up missing, the stymied police, urged by her intended
Kinnear and her wealthy father, eventually turn to Blanchett's
soothsayer for help. This takes almost an hour to evolve.
It's extremely tenuous and generally dull going. Worse
yet is the Southern stereotypes including Keanu's racist
wife-beater who calls Blanchett a "witch" and the Police
Chief who continually interrupts Blanchett's attempts
to help with his "I don't believe in this shit" attitude.
Yawn. Luckily, the acting is brilliant and the visuals
acts as a spoonful of sugar, making the medicine of
the spotty and typical plot go down a tad bit easier.
More actors are heaped on the pile later in the film
to help keep us involved. Michael Jeter is awesome in
a short turn as a smarmy Southern lawyer and Gary Cole
helps pull a typical DA into a more interesting character.
Of course, there are suspects abounding in the disappearance
of the girl as she was known to associate with almost
every man in the film, generally in being sexually active
with them. This is how Thornton and Epperson keep the
whodunnit cranking, they offer us at least four viable
candidates as the possible "suspect" in the crime and
never offer any proof to the contrary, so like Blanchett,
we are left to guess who did it, waiting for flashes
of her psychic power to lead us to the perpetrator of
the crime. It's a whodunnit you can't solve. You have
to wait for Blanchett's visions to tell you.
The subplot with Ribisi is truly troubling as it offers
up yet another typical and supposedly fanciful look
at incestuous child sexual abuse in contrived story
imagery that is supposed to be jaw-dropping and somehow
poetic. None of this works and Ribisi is not able to
elevate his scenes above the mundane script. It only
troubling in that it has really almost nothing to do
with the main plot and uses a disgusting social problem
to act as another jittery, nerve wracking and edgy plot
development here. It's disgustingly prurient. You expect
better from the scripters - and from Ribisi.
Filmed in the boggy countrysides of Georgia and using
typical sparse "violin" score music to accentuate his
film, Raimi doesn't hit on all cylinders here. This
is more like filler in between masterpieces for the
director. There have been much better films in the past
and the future surely holds brighter promise for him
as well. But with it's rich ensemble cast and it's atmospheric
cinematics, "The Gift" is a passable film that is surely
worth a look from discriminating and patient audiences.
Those looking for a typical Keanu Reeves film should
look elsewhere.
Note:
This is like the 8th or 9th film with the title "The
Gift."
Ribisi is nominated for an Independent Spirit Award
for Best Supporting Actor for his work here. Remember
that young actors: Awards and nomination go to those
who play mentally disturbed people. Never turn down
such a role!
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