Directed by:
Sam RaimiCinematography:
Jamie AndersonComposer:
Christopher YoungCast:
Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi, Keanu Reeves, Katie Holmes, Greg Kinnear, Hilary Swank, Michael Jeter, Kim Dickens, Gary Cole, Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
Widow and mother of three, Annie Wilson (Blanchett), makes her living by foretelling others' futures...though her own has become cloudier than even she can see. Threatened by client's violently jealous husband (Reeves) and plagues by visions of a missing town-girl (Holmes), Annie is unwittingly pulled into a thicket of lies and deception in which her extraordinary gift could be used against her...and get her killed. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (9)
After the third screening, I'm adding a star for the really excellent atmosphere, the music that suits the story to a tee, the really beautiful locations where Raimi has placed the tale of murder, and the beautiful fortune teller played by Cate Blanchett. I think that in the field of "mystery thrillers" The Gift is one of the most successful films ever.
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Given that Billy Bob Thornton hasn’t written many scripts, all of them were little gems. And when it is made by an interesting director like Sam Raimi, the guarantee of a quality cross between an interesting idea and unrestrained mainstream is certain. And it is precisely when evaluating Raimi's work that I find myself on shaky ground because surprisingly, he abandoned his typical visual tricks (well, not entirely, as scenes in the woods á la Evil Dead or the bathroom scene can challenge even stronger stomachs) to give maximum space to the actors, who richly reciprocate this "trust." Starting with Cate Blanchett, who seems to be incapable of acting badly, through Keanu Reeves in an atypical role as the antagonist, and ending with Katie Holmes, who compensates for her lack of acting talent in other ways (every viewer should wait for the ending, which, in my opinion, falters a bit, especially in terms of Raimi's delivery, because I guessed what was going to happen about ten minutes beforehand). Just cutting out one scene would make the ending really impactful for me. But that's just a minor criticism of the film, which flows like water, scares, entertains, and most importantly, doesn't fade from your mind after a few days. x
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Sam Raimi is a genius! A small town where you get a wonderful glimpse into the lives of each of its residents, one swamp and one murder. And one abandoned mother of three who sees in the cards things that she would rather not see. Raimi unravels the tapestry of suspicions and viewer’s questions of “Who is the killer?”, bringing us closer to the fragile protagonist and giving us either pleasant chills or first-class cardiac shocks in her visions and nightmares. Raimi has fulfilled his dream and made a horror movie in which there are no rivers of blood, but it doesn’t let us breathe until the final second. The Gift is a nostalgic tribute to the Hitchcock school of pure thriller techniques in a mosaic of precisely defined characters and a sophisticated plot. And that cast! If it weren’t for the revealing of the killer’s identity twenty minutes before the film's conclusion, its climax would have been even more suspenseful and shocking. And The Gift would have been a five-star genre treat.
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It's a pity the film isn't from 1999, otherwise I would have said it’s another example of the golden thrillers of the 90s. The cast is fabulous, the final twist is okay, I wouldn't put my hand in the fire for it, even though I suspected it. I enjoyed the courtroom scene and the nicely building tension. I love these films. 75%.
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If Cate Blanchett, Giovanni "In-every-role-different-and-always-great" Ribisi and Keanu Reeves had not been in The Gift, it would have been a complete waste of time. Seriously, what everyone sees in this film remains a mystery to me. Sam Raimi is a genius? And what exactly has he done here that is brilliant? Yes, he builds the atmosphere of the town solidly, until one wonders why he has never made anything based on Stephen King, but that's about all I can praise him for. Apart from that, there are a few cheesy jump scares, dreams/visions that are also quite simple and not very impressive, the story is particularly bland and it's no problem at all to figure out who the killer is... And what about the final surprise? I felt like I was watching a special episode of the (pretty terrible) series Beyond Belief.
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