An Abundant Gift

A friend and co-worker recently loaned me the movie The Gift. We share a love of good thriller-chiller-supernatural stories, and he thought I'd enjoy this one.

It certainly had a pedigree. Directed by Sam Raimi, and with a star cast including Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi, Hilary Swank, Greg Kinnear, Keanu Reeves, and Katie Holmes, it seemed like it would be hard not to find something to like here.

Indeed, there were things to like. There was some very strong acting. I'm not talking about Keanu, who fails to be menacing as a wife-abusing husband, or Katie, in a bit role mostly about baring her breasts. But all the others I mentioned are very strong. There are also a number of other great character performances from people like Gary Cole, JK Simmons, and Kim Dickens -- people whose faces you probably know, even if you don't know their names.

The directing is strong, as you'd predict. There's a bit of an over-reliance on "jumpy" scares substituting for genuine suspense, but there's definitely some effective material here. Special props to the sound guys for this creepy, creepy moment with a fiddle player in the swamp that's giving me chills even as I think about it here.

But a lot of marks have to be taken off for the script. Put simply, it's overstuffed. The movie is trying to be way too many things, and track way too many subplots. It's a supernatural thriller, but it's also a romance! It's a whodunnit, but it's also a courtroom drama!

It's the story of a psychic who has visions that might help solve a murder. But it's also the story of a single mother trying to raise three children. With subplots about a two-faced young woman cheating on her fiance. And about another woman being abused by her husband. AND about a tormented young man with psychological traumas stemming from his father.

In trying to do all these things, tell all these stories, the movie never really handles any of them effectively. That includes the mystery, which is very transparent. What's more, all this ground is covered very effectively in the current television series Medium. Granted, this came several years before Medium, but that doesn't change the fact that five seasons of this formula has seriously diluted the impact of this film.

Still, Cate Blanchett is compelling. Giovanni Ribisi and Hilary Swank each take a separate subplot, either of which you could argue ought to be cut, and deliver powerhouse performances with deeply emotional scenes.

The movie is a mess, but it's not a loss. I rate it a B-.