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Summary: "The Gift" is a supernatural
thriller about a widow who has a special gift to see into the future
and the past of her clients by reading their cards. In the struggle to
deal with her husband's sudden death and raising three young boys, Annie has
to overcome people's prejudices and help her friends and clients with her
gift.
The performances by Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi and Greg Kinnear were
superb. "The Gift" is a smart and spellbinding mystery-thriller with deep dramatic flair. It's a must-see, particularly for those who appreciate a
well-woven mystery-thriller.
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The Story
Cate Blanchett stars as Annie Wilson, a card
reader/fortune teller who inherited this supernatural gift through her
family. She foretells of a fatal accident at her husband's cable plant
and warned him of the impending danger. However, he disregarded her
warning and went to work anyway. Now, Annie is a widow with three
young boys to care and feed. She tries her best to to survive in a small
Southern town on just social security and donations in return for her card
readings for a number of very devoted local clients and friends. One
of her clients, Buddy (Giovanni Ribisi), is deeply disturbed by something in
his past and she desperately tries to get him to face his past so that he
can make a full recovery and move on with his life. Another close
friend/client is Valerie (Hilary Swank) who is repeatedly and brutally beat
up by her abusive husband Donnie Barksdale (Keanu Reeves). Though Annie
strongly advises Valerie to leave Donnie, Valerie simply refuses to leave
out of fear.
Annie also knows the elementary school principal,
Wayne (Greg Kinnear), and his fiancée, Jessica (Katie Holmes). When
Jessica casually asks Annie for a card reading, Annie immediately gets a bad
vision. From that point on, Annie keeps getting visions of the
horrific things that are to come. Will Annie's gift of telling the future and of the past help
her get through this storm in her life? Or will it put her in deeper
danger?
"The Gift" is wonderfully written, directed, and
performed by the awesome all-star cast. The story is smart,
well-knitted, and full of twists that will keep you guessing until the end
(and then some). The suspense is white-knuckle gripping and
bone-chilling. It was so scary and intense, I was forced to turn down
the volume, to ease the tension. The cinematography is
stunningly beautiful and accentuates the mood of the film nicely, as the story
unfolds. Cate Blanchett's performance is simply mesmerizing.
Giovanni Ribisi was perfect in his role as the disturbed young man,
deserving of an Oscar nomination. Greg Kinnear lived and breathed his
role of the down-to-earth elementary school principal, while Katie Holmes is
incredible cute and epitomized the sensual and flirtatious fiancée.
The movie gets a very emphatic nod of approval.
Don't miss it. It's clearly one of this year's best thrillers.
The Extras
"The Gift" contains a minimal amount of bonus
material:
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Exclusive cast and crew interviews features the
development of "The Gift": Cate Blanchette discusses her
introduction to the script during the filming of "Pushing Tin" with
Billy Bob Thornton and how she enjoyed being with the cast during the
filming of "The
Gift". I am amazed at how young Giovanni Ribisi and
his perfect performance as Buddy. He has always acted his roles so
well that I have assumed he was must older. For a small role,
Greg Kinnear gave his best performance I've seen through many of his
movies.
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Music video "Furnace Room Lullaby" performed
by Neko Case & Her Boyfriends
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Theatrical trailer
I wish there were more.
Video & Audio
The image quality of this anamorphic
widescreen DVD is excellent. The colors are accurate and
saturated, while shadow detail is very good. The wonderful
cinematography was captured in its true form to DVD. I did notice a
few occasional specks of dust in the film stock, but these were quite
minor. The Dolby
Digital 5.1 soundtrack is well balanced and the surround channels are
used effectively to re-create the natural sounds of the swamp landscape. The dialog
consistently comes across crystal clear.
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Home Video web site.
Did you find this DVD movie review helpful? Let us
know your thoughts, send an e-mail to us at Staff@TimeForDVD.com.
Associated equipment used in evaluation: Sony
DVP-S7700 reference DVD player, Sony
KP-61V45 61" rear projection TV (4:3 screen aspect ratio), Sony ES
STR-V444ES A/V receiver, NHT 2.1 as left/right main speakers, NHT 1.1C center channel speaker, NHT
SuperZero as surround speakers, Monster Cable M-series S-Video cable MSV-500, Monster
Cable Interlink LightSpeed 100 (Toslink) optical cable, Monster Cable XP speaker
wires, and Sony MDR-V600 studio monitor headphones. Our home theater equipment was calibrated
with the Video
Essentials DVD.
Be sure to check out our Top 10 DVDs of the year
2001 and our list of this year's Oscar winners on DVD.
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