Grade: C
Director Sam Raimi's latest work may entertain, but could
When Sam Raimi, the adored director of cult classics like "Army of Darkness" and "Evil Dead II," teams up with the humble, introspective writing talent of Billy Bob Thornton to make a supernatural murder mystery, the product promises a strange but sincere treatment.
Unfortunately, "The Gift" is uncannily bland. It is a run-of-the-mill whodunnit with very few surprises, and several large disappointments.
Cate Blanchett plays Annie Wilson, a widowed mother of three living in a small southern town who, after various plot digressions, becomes the sole witness to a murder. The victim is the Betty Boop-ish Jessica King (Katie Holmes), whose only appearance as a living person involves letting her dress strap slip within an inch of frontal nudity and making out with her father.
Yet, Holmes is not the only cartoon character in this film. Giovanni Ribisi plays Buddy, an hygenically-impaired mechanic with an extremely overplayed hillbilly-like speech impediment and a serious problem with mental stability. Hilary Swank, who tosses off her Oscar shine to become a poofy-haired country bumpkin, delivers a fairly commendable performance as Valerie, the abused wife of the formidable Donnie Barksdale (Keanu Reeves). Blanchett's confident, motherly character juggles compassionate therapy sessions with both Buddy and Valerie, taking on a risky murder trial testimony somewhere in the middle of the film.
Raimi and Thornton spend the first hour or so making sure the audience thinks Donnie Barksdale is the bad guy, Scooby Doo-style. He possesses a mean hick name, a scruffy mean hick beard and throws in a few racial slurs at the end of his sentences so that, just in case the audience does not catch it when he hits Cate Blanchett, he's a mean hick. The problem with Donnie Barksdale is that his villainhood is based mainly on his physical abuse of Valerie, which is depicted fairly terrifyingly in several scenes. At least on "Scooby Doo" we know when someone is the bad guy because they scowl.
Domestic violence, for reasons never divulged to the audience, is a large part of this film. Blanchett, Swank and Holmes all get hit, kicked, pushed or bludgeoned by someone as the plot progresses, and Ribisi's character is a victim as well. It is hard to understand why - the film is not about domestic violence, and never really deals with the issue substantially. One scene, depicting Holmes performing a gloriously sexy striptease and then being beaten by her killer while bare-breasted, is especially egregious.
By the way, Annie Wilson can see things through psychic vision. As if Donnie's greasy "band of bad'uns" milling menacingly outside the courthouse is not enough, Annie also has to cope with the fact that no one believes that she saw the murder via reading tarot cards. Aside from a few brief sequences depicting Annie's "gift" in action, that is about all Raimi gives on the film's namesake. Somehow, this film manages to not be about anything in what seems to be an accidental case of eyes-bigger-than-stomach syndrome.
Blanchett delivers a decent performance, although it seems like "The Gift's" casting director may never have seen any of her movies and just thought she looked nice. Further, domestic violence and the paranormal may appear to be central themes of this movie, but they are not. Maybe Raimi and Thornton thought they were making a live-action "Scooby" after all.
