2000 - THE GIFT, southern gothic story from Sam Raimi

Sam Raimi who's film making style can at times can be considered over the top and frantic actually restrains himself for this film set in Georgia.  The film stars Cate Blanchett as a woman who is apparently endowed with a psychic ability to see into the future.  She gets involved in the murder investigation of a rich woman where her visions eventually lead her to understand what happened to the dead woman.

For a modestly budgeted film Raimi put together a seriously good cast.  Keenau Reeves is a very dangerous redneck, Hillary Swank is his white trash wife.  Greg Kinnear is the nice guy school principal with a tramp of a fiancee played by Katie Holmes.  Gary Cole and J. K. Simmons are the law enforcement officials trying to understand if Blanchett's visions are real or imaginary.

 

But this film is really all about Cate Blanchett who gives another flawless performance as a clairvoyant. Blanchett has the accent and more importantly the character down.  It's even more impressive when you remember she was raised in Australia not exactly a country loaded with American southerners.  Raimi must have realized he was dealing with an impressive performer because he focuses the entire film around her.

 

Raimi is still Raimi so when he needs to put in a scary scene he reverts to some of the tricks he has learned form directing his over the top horror films, however he is good at getting a lot of southern atmosphere into the film.  This is a very good southern gothic genre film.

Written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson, the running time is 112 minutes.