Review of The Gift (2000) by Ld P — 19 Nov 2009

The Gift (2000) Annie Wilson is a young widow with three children. She has a "gift" and to make ends meet she reads cards and tells people their future. When the daughter of the area's most prominent citizen disappears, Annie is called upon by the woman's anxious father and fiancé to assist the police.

She manages to lead them to the lake where the girl's body is to be found and the police arrest Donnie Barksdale, known to both Annie and the police as an extremely violent man. Annie continues to receive clues even after Barksdale's arrest that leads her to believe someone else is responsible.

In her final confrontation with the killer, she gets assistance from an unexpected source. Annie's realistically presented emotional life helps downplay standard-issue psychic/horror elements. Sam Rami has made some good films.

I especially liked ?A simple Plan? with Billy Bob Thornton. Thornton helped produce this one. This film is in the vein of The 6th Sense. In this film he uses thunder and lightning, dark hallways and the lonely shadows of a cypress swamp to conjure an ambience thick with dread and ambiguity giving us lots of southern gothic feelings.

What is most original about "The Gift" is the way it uses supernaturalism as a mode of psychological exploration, forcing you to suspend your skepticism and experience the confusion and vulnerability that might accompany insight like Annie's.

It is predictable but involving and very well produced. Great -Cinematography and Great Acting from Blanchette Kinnear and Reeves. Playing somewhat against type, Reeves proves that he can be a good `bad' guy, giving possibly one of his best performances ever as Donnie.

He very credibly conveys that sense of explosiveness lying just beneath the surface that makes his character menacing and dark, which in turn makes Donnie psychologically as well as physically threatening.

It's a good job by Reeves, who deserves credit for taking on a role that is so disagreeable and insensitive. Giovanni Ribisi is also excellent. Rami makes a straightforward approach that makes for a solid tale well told tale - no huge special effects or overtly trendy stuff.

Savannah, Ga. Filming/camera work does a good job of blending New South locations with traditional atmospherics involving spooky shadows, moss and other elements of the gothic south mixed with the spookiness of a fortune teller!! good movie 3 1/2 stars.