Review of The Gift (2000) by Alex C — 13 Jun 2010
The Gift is an accomplished character driven murder/mystery film with a supernatural horror twist which has some effective scare moments and fantastic acting from the ensemble cast.
The plot revolves around small town fortune teller Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchett) who is employed by the local police to solve the disappearance of a local girl. Plenty of mystery and suspense follows as Annie has eerie dreams and visions about the case and all is not what it seems. Really the strengths of The Gift are the excellent characters and story arcs that it contains. Keanu Reeves puts in a good performance as a wife beating redneck and Giovanni Ribisi steals the show as a messed up car mechanic. Each character is integral to the plot and their story unfolds into a somewhat predictable climax which is the films only weak point.
The direction from Sam Raimi is spot on as he goes back to his horror routes. The use of flashback images and an excellent soundtrack produce some frightening scenes and the pacing is perfect. The ending could have been better as it was obvious what the outcome would be.
The Gift is a solid horror mystery with excellent acting all round. Definitely worth a look.
This review of The Gift (2000) was written by Alex C on 13 Jun 2010.
The Gift has generally received positive reviews.
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