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By Popcorn Avenger What if the only witness to a murder were not there? This is the premise of Sam Rami’s The Gift. Annie Wilson(Cate Blanchett) is a small town psychic who is haunted by images of a local girl’s grizzly death. In a lesser filmmaker’s hands this film could have ended up looking like an extended commercial for Madame Cleo’s Tarot card reading, but Rami is adept at handling material which is out of the ordinary(see the Evil Dead film series). The characters, even those with smaller roles are well drawn out an portrayed to perfection by a very capable cast (even Keanu Reeves who usually carries all the dramatic versatility of cardboard is effective here). A very smart script by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Eperson holds your attention throughout the piece. My biggest complaint, and it is a small one is that the twist ending is not much of a twist…or surprise. With every filmmaker since The Sixth Sense trying to out twist the next, twist endings are becoming relatively easy to predict: Whoever is least likely to have done it, did it. That aside this is a very classy, intelligent thriller.   Back to Movie Index |
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