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The Gift (2001) DVD Review
The Gift (2001) DVD Credits:
The Gift (2001) Directed by:
Sam Raimi
The Gift (2001) Written by:
Billy Bob Thornton, Tom Epperson
The Gift (2001) Cast:
Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi, Keanu Reeves, Greg Kinnear, Hilary Swank, Katie Holmes, Michael Jeter, Kim Dickens, Gary Cole, Rosemary Harris
The Gift (2001) Released by:
Not available at this time
Region:
1
The Gift (2001) DVD Release Date:
1st January 2006
Our Rating: Extras Rating:

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The Gift (2001) Synopsis:

Annie, a young recently widowed mother of three, lives in Brixton, Georgia and supports herself by giving psychic readings. The narrow-minded townspeople shun her for her gift of psychic vision. When Valerie drops in for a reading, Annie advises her to leave her abusive husband. Soon, Annie finds herself in danger as the body of a woman is found and investigators turn to her for help. Slowly, the dark secrets of this rural southern town are exposed and Annie's 'gift' becomes her only hope of saving herself and her family.

The Gift (2001) DVD Review:

Another supernatural thriller, another Sixth Sense rip off right? Well, hmm sort of. The thing is The Gift is an all right movie. It boasts an all star cast in which most, if not all of its key actors give relatively good performances. And yes, I include Keanu Reeves in that bracket too. The film is a character driven piece, and without the aforementioned good performances from its actors, well, I don't think The Gift would have been half as entertaining. The story we've all seen before. Think The Sixth Sense meets The Evil Dead meets you're average whodunit film where you always guess straight away...... whodunit!

The good things about the film? Well, as I said, all of the actors are great, in particular Cate Blanchett who carries most of the film herself. Most of the story is told through her character. She's utterly convincing as Annie, the local psychic, who helps the police to track down the person responsible for the murder of a local girl. She shows an emotional side to her character as she struggles with her inner demons, i.e.. Coping with the death of her husband, dealing with her sons inability to progress at school because of the loss of his father and indeed with her 'gift'. Supporting, well I loved Giovanni Ribisi in the film. I loved Greg Kinnear, who again delivers a great performance once again, but for me The Gift will be remembered for displaying a different side to Keanu Reeves's acting ability. Yes, he's really quite good as the wife beating adulterer Donnie Barksdale and is himself really quite scary in places. Hilary Swank, she the Oscar winner from Boys Don't Cry, is also fantastic but boy, the clothes she wears in this movie!

And so, the bad points. For me, well, it didn't really grab my attention all that much and the film is very slow to get things going. The murdered body is discovered literally an hour in almost, and I felt that it spent too much time introducing us the many characters featured in the film. I agree, for this type of film it is necessary, but to be honest I was bored right up until the point of the 'discovery'. Raimi, usually a director whise movies I love to watch, is actually quite boring in the way that he has handled this. His direction is simply average. Where are all of those weird/ interesting camera angles seen in such movies as The Evil Dead or more recently The Quick & The Dead? Not here. A tad disappointing since he was (for me) the major draw. Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson's script is quite witty in places. I love the line where Blanchett's son in the film asks he was the word 'Fuck' means. She simply replies 'It's a bad word for something that's good', or something like that. Made me chuckle. The thing that let the story down was that it was so PREDICTABLE! It tries to deliver the obligatory twist at the end, but, in no uncertain terms did I find myself feeling as satisfied as I did after watching The Sixth Sense or The Others for the first time.

The Gift is merely an okay thriller. It's not all that scary, sure there are a few jumpy bits during some sequences, but that's it. It's boosted by the players' performances, and as I said, each actor makes the most of the material. So don't expect anything special.

The Gift Disc Review: Picture quality on the disc is average with colours looking very washed out in some scenes. The best thing about the disc is the Dolby 5.1 sound. Check out the sound of birds chirping through the surrounds and front channels about half way in where Blanchett is outside of her house speaking to her baby-sitter. Not a bad soundtrack at all. Extras are minimal with the okayish interviews with the main actors and director Raimi. The interview and featurette both include similar material and reveal far too much about the plot. So watch the film before you check out the extras. There is also the theatrical trailer plus TV spots, but surprise, surprise, no Raimi commentary. Average.

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The Gift (2001) DVD review written by: Gareth Von Kallenbach

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