It’s probably not all that rare that a film is way better than it should be because of who is in the cast rather than the story itself. I can maybe think of five or six movies right off the top of my head that I liked mostly because of the actors. Crimes and Misdemeanors, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Heat. Okay, that’s only three, but you get my point. No doubt you can do the same thing. Such is the case for director Sam Raimi‘s 2000 thriller The Gift, a stylish little supernatural mystery that has a clever story and good direction but is made a whole heck of a lot more fun to watch because the cast swings for the fences.
The plot revolves around a young woman named Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchett). She is a local fortune teller in Georgia who just happens to actually be clairvoyant, a handy thing in her profession. When Jessica King (Katie Holmes), the sexy fiancé of school principal Wayne Collins (Greg Kinnear) goes missing, Annie gets a vision that Jessica is murdered and thrown to the bottom of a nearby pond. Sheriff Pearl Johnson (J.K. Simmons) doesn’t go for all that psychic mumbo-jumbo junk but nonetheless drags the body of water and finds Jessica’s body. Annie was right.
For Donnie Barksdale (Keanu Reeves), this is bad news as he gets arrested for the crime. He’s also got history with Annie, who has advised his wife Valerie (Hilary Swank) to leave him since he been beating her. Good reason. Meanwhile, there’s Buddy Cole (Giovanni Ribisi), a mentally-ill young man and friend of Annie, who does not get along that well with his father, claiming he’s been sexually abused. So much so, he sets him on fire. Off to a mental health hospital he goes.
Then things get interesting. Turns out, Jessica had a few secrets that now cause a whole spiral of complications, leading to questions about who did what and when. It’s tricky business that sends Annie back to the pond where the truth is a real killer.
Written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson, The Gift requires a bit of eye rolling if you’re not one to hop on the psychic bandwagon, the ploy kind of a cheap way to make reveals to the audience that could inspire some giggles. But … and that’s a strong but … what makes it work is how committed Blanchette and the rest of the cast are to it, Raimi never letting it be the crux of the story but rather a way to build community around these characters.
Blanchett is very well cast, creating a genuine sense of weight behind the gift Annie is imbued with, which is of course more of a curse. I really like the way she wears it like a burden, a kind of haunting in her shoulders that makes progression in the story all the more troublesome. Watch how that reduces her as the film moves toward the end and how her relationship to those around her is affected.
Reeves is good, too, though not on screen much, building a fear around him that works. A real standout is Ribisi, who for many, was their introduction to his talents, despite more than a decade in the business already and a brief but memorable moment in Steven Spielberg‘s Saving Private Ryan. Here, he’s almost lost in the part, making Buddy perhaps a cliched character by the writing, but one that has tremendous personality and emotional impact in delivery. It’s good stuff.
However, no conversation about The Gift can be complete without a nod to Holmes, who is the real shining star in all of this, putting on quite the show. Fearless to a degree, she is the heart of the story and while that story is bent by the need for supernatural interventions, comes packing a big punch. She’s both stunning and erotic and equally vulnerable and visibly frayed. It’s this balance as a powerfully attractive woman and devastating menace that give Holmes opportunity to create a unique performance, one that is ranked among her best.
These kinds of thrillers are pretty common and coming up with something different isn’t easy, which is partially the problem for The Gift, and indeed, it being more than twenty years old certainly may feel outdated and more than a little obvious. However, as I swing back to my opening thoughts, it is the cast that propels this fun murder mystery. It’s what to watch.