Hey folks, Harry here. The following review, I had to edit severely to prevent EVERY SINGLE TWIST AND TURN to this mystery supernatural thriller from being told months ahead of time. I have not read the script, and the types of spoilers that he gave were just... everything. Who the killer is, all the twists... And Nope... No way I'm letting that out... even with spoiler warnings, which... BTW... there are still lots and lots of SPOILERS in this review. The Robotic Johnson had quite a bit of problems with suspension of disbelief and following the internal logic of the film. How 'the gift' works, why visions don't fill the whole story, all sorts of things. He compares the film to movies like NEEDFUL THINGS, THE DEAD ZONE and PET CEMETARY... but means it in a negative manner. To each their own I suppose. From the sound of it, this could play like ROSEMARY'S BABY or DON'T LOOK NOW or EYES OF LAURA MARS. We've had a vast majority of positive reviews, with this being our only negative thus far. I'm still very confident in Raimi's film. Remember... there are still lots of spoilers below...
Review of The Gift
The Gift is still in post-production and I saw it without it's original score. There were quite a few scratches that I am taking into account, but I have to be honest, I didn't like this movie. I had expected to be disturbed but all the film seemed to provide were some jolts and a very anorexic plot.
For the first time Giovanni Ribisi had the most intriguing role in the film (I feel really dumb saying that) and Keanu Reeves was really believable as a backwoods wife-beater.
I found out about the screening in Santa Monica and checked it out at Paramount Studios the other night. I wasn't sure what to expect but I am not the biggest fan of Sam Raimi. I enjoy his work in a campy way-but even his serious films like "A Simple Plan" have a "B" quality I can't quite wash from my mouth. The best comparison I could make with this film would be to the feel of several Steven King movies like "Needful Things," "The Dead Zone," or "Pet Cemetary" but while in each of those films there was something I appreciated (for whatever reason, maybe it was that I was a teenager when I saw them) there wasn't much to overcome what seemed like a trite script, poor production quality, boring cinematography (straight ahead angles with little variation-you either looked directly at a person or over their shoulder) and so-so acting.
But I digress. I haven't even explained what the movie is about.
Pretty much it goes something like this:
Blanchett has "The Gift" which is a very undefined series of psychic abilities which she uses to solve the murder of Katie Holmes, the small country town's premadonna/debutante/slut.
Keanu Reeves, who is the local white-trash outsider with an attitude, but who has no motive for killing Holmes, is convicted of the murder but seriously with the brevity of the trial and lack of motive I and many people I sat with had figured this out very early on: (DELETED BECAUSE IT SUCKS THAT I NOW KNOW THIS!!!) was the killer. And I don't mean that to sound arrogant. BLANK was just the only one with a reason.
It had an a la "Sixth Sense" vibe and the word "Gift" could certainly be substituted for the former. But with the murder mystery plot it looked to veer off a copycat course. Unfortunately it crashed on the runway.
Over the course of the movie there are many elements introduced which could have kept the film from seeming so trite-
When did Annie (Blanchett) get her gift? How did it first manifest? Was it a shock to her? Was she born with it? Did it come in a car-wreck? Knowing where it comes from and how she feels about it would go a long way in establishing her character.
Next-she and her three sons are impoverished dealing with the death of her husband in an explosion the year before. Obvious questions-if she's a psychic why didn't she stop it? Her three sons are growing despondent-as a psychic shouldn't her empathy help her reach out to them? If not, why not? Why does she push them away? Dealing with any of these would have given it a greater human, less plot oriented, element.
Annie sees Katie Holmes precognitively as a corpse before she is murdered. But doesn't say a word. With Blanchett knowing what happened to her own husband after having visions of his death, why doesn't she try to help Holmes? There are a lot of places to go with that question.
If Blanchett's powers are so strong as to see visions that help her locate Holmes' body in the bottom of a lake why doesn't she ever have visions when dealing with her other clients-Valerie (Hillary Swank-who plays Keanu Reeves' wife) and Buddy (Giovanni Ribisi)? Why does her psychokinesis take the form of dreams, visions and flashes in Holmes' case but with the other two she can barely ask probing questions.
It would have been really interesting to see her inside her other clients thoughts. It might not have even tied into the plot but more into showing her abilities and her emotions.
But the ability conundrum actually leads to one of my biggest problems with the film. Her visions only happen when it is necessary to advance the plot. I can buy to some extent that the visions would intensify as time goes on. But the fact that her vision never showed her who the killer was until the end seems a bit lame-, Blanchett experienced the strangulation in her own dream.
In the shot where you see her (Blanchett), there are hands holding her throat, and the way she was being held she would have been looking directly at the killer. I'll buy a lot of bullshit-like maybe post-traumatic stress syndrome-but she was looking right at the killer. So somehow between there and the courtroom where Donny Barksdale (Keanu Reeves) is convicted of the murder, she never notices that they look different.
Also-there is a huge question of women's roles in this southern redneck (please don't think I'm being prejudiced, I have a lot to say about the redneck portrayal of this community later on) community. From the onset with Hillary Swank they are portrayed as victims. When Swank is beaten by Reeves she takes it and does not leave him.
When Blanchett is initially threatened and attacked by Reeves she doesn't call the police. Only after he breaks into her house does she bother. Then when she is punched by Reeves (on the dock in the dredging scene) with several police officers around, the chief only tells him to knock it off. No one does anything until Holmes' body is being dredged from the pond.
And when in a flashback sequence Reeves strikes Holmes, knocking her out, when she wakes she only says she would like to go home and doesn't even get upset.
That event alone coupled with Holmes' overt sexuality could have brought many subplots to the film. How many lovers? How many potential killers? How many motives for killing her? Was she a response to the old-fashioned culture around her?
Parallel that with Blanchett's character, a single strong mother, trying to make it by with her connection to-well, whatever spiritual force it is-and Annie becomes that much more important. How is she so strong in a small-town society where women are abused and material on a man's arm? But rather they became minor plot points and the mystery that was thin from start to finish took the fore.
Which brings the film to its next problem. Caricatures. There are no real characters in this movie only stereotypes of small-town life.
Reeves and Swank are the white-trash outsiders. Blanchett is the weird woman at the edge of town. The police are inept because of their local friendships. Holmes is the spoiled town slut. Kinnear is the town do-gooder. Ribisi is well-weird. Honestly he's a psychotic version of Larry from the Newhart Show.
Inept and introverted, the films' best scene arises when Blanchett's son is threatened and Ribisi goes nuts on Keanu. Ribisi who is suicidal, but grateful to Blanchett for trying to help him, smashes the windshield and hood of Reeves' truck with a crowbar until Reeves pulls out a gun at which point Ribisi grabs the gun pulling it to his head and screams at Reeves to pull the trigger. Ribisi wants to die so there is no reason for him to hold back. It was awesome.
But that's one scene with real character. Everything from Donnie's (Reeve's) racism to the local sheriff's preoccupation with donuts is just typical and overdone.
Soon after that scene Ribisi is committed to an institution after trying to kill his father (Dennis Hopper's wordless cameo) who sexually molested him as a child (playing into that other stereotype of backwoods incest). This then brings things up to the finale.
I'll say-sure I was surprised by this-that-but what does it matter when it has little else to do with the film. What does it have to do with her gift?
The only explanation I can think of is "deus ex machina." There was no other way to resolve the conflict without it and since they wanted to mimic that surprise ending in "The Sixth Sense" they made it be that. Very thin.
So to summarize the problem with the film was that it was all plot with few real twists and thin/shallow characters. There were never any rules, so anything could happen, which makes it very difficult to suspend disbelief and so in terms of that it just seemed like a pale Steven King-ized "The Sixth Sense" which rested solely on the assumed ignorance of a small-town.
The Robotic Johnson
