The Gift

• Cert:
• Cat.no: D 093241
• Running time: 107 minutes
• Year: 2001
• Pressing: 2001
• Region(s): 2, PAL
• Chapters: 20 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: English
• Widescreen: 1.85:1
• 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
• Macrovision: Yes
• Disc Format: DVD 5
• Price: £19.99
• Extras: Behind-the-Scenes Featurette, Cast and Crew Interviews, TV and Radio Spots, Trailer

Director:

Sam Raimi

Cast:

Annie Wilson: Cate Blanchett
Buddy Cole: Giovanni Ribisi
Wayne Collins: Greg Kinnear
Jessica King: Katie Holmes
Valerie Barksdale: Hilary Swank
Donny Barksdale: Keanu Reeves
Gerald Weems: Michael Jeter
Linda: Kim Dickens
David Duncan: Gary Cole
Sheriff Johnson: J.K. Simmons

On paper, The Gift – co-written by Billy Bob Thornton, directed by Sam Raimi and starring a host of top talent – really ought to be a surefire success. Somehow though, this supernatural Smalltown murder mystery never quite rises above the humdrum or the cliched. Nothing in the movie gels the way it might be expected to, the tension and chills also failing to raise the overall tempo above an overwhelmingly pedestrian level.

Given the presence of Cate Blanchett in this film’s central role, and her continual involvement in the unfolding dirge, it’s all the more unexpected. Blanchett has always been a luminous, fascinating actress, capable of playing wildly differing characters with great – almost effortless – conviction. Here, she even manages to hold the attention with compelling intensity, yet the material ultimately lets her – and everyone else – down badly.

The Gift is a reference to the extra-sensory powers which she has inherited from her ancestors, and which have created suspicion, mistrust and hostility towards her from local townsfolk. It’s an unoriginal scenario, and the stereotypical people who inhabit this hicksville of a place are sketchily-written and often miscast. A thriller, especially one billed as a psychological thriller, needs a sharpness… a sense of urgency punctuating the escalating unease. It’s no use having a plot so predictable that, 20 minutes from the end, the question of whodunnit is blindingly obvious. When you consider the protagonist franctically (so they hope) trying to solve the mystery has psychic abilities, the fact she is still in the dark as to the killer’s identity makes a mockery of the whole sorry business.

Provocative subjects are raised – among them child abuse, wife-beating and the dangers of witchcraft – and much of the action is shot in “cinema verite” style, with little sonic embellishment or sugar coating. Unfortunately, the result is chronically muddled, and occasionally incomprehensible. None of the various narrative strands are ever satisfyingly explored or resolved.

Raimi, by all accounts, used to be an acclaimed horror film director with some pizzazz. The Evil Dead remains a cult classic. How far away that must seem now, as The Gift is comprehensively bereft of genuine flair or momentum. There is a complete absence of personality in his leaden direction, a lack of cohesion or purpose to the interminable opening half-hour.

At its core, The Gift is no more than a bog-standard “young woman goes missing under suspicious circumstances” tale, with the added dimension of events being connected to, and seen through, a main character who is haunted by nightmarish visions. It’s all too contrived, and too derivative, to engage or involve. Audiences need substantially more these days, they’ve literally seen it all before. The only route to avoiding this kind of embarassingly flat end-product is to take the post-modern approach, or else splatter as many brain-frazzling special effects into the mix as possible.