The Gift (2001)

The action takes place in a rural Georgia town, where Cate reads cards for clients in an attempt to make ends meet. Hilary Swank is one of Cate's clients. Cate counsels her to leave her abusive and womanizing husband, played by Keanu Reeves. This just earns Cate the emnity of Keanu, who begins a campaign of terror against her. Cate also reads cards for Giovanni Ribisi, who is a standout with his dazzling performance in the role of a mentally traumatized young man, whom Cate treats kindly.

Cate is called to her son's school one day, where she meets with Greg Kinnear over something her son did. While there, she meets meets his kittenish fiancee, well played by Katie Holmes, who recognizes Cate as the local psychic and asks what she sees in their future. What Cate sees does not bode well for them.

When Kinnear's fiancee predictably turns up murdered, the hunt is on for her killer. The obvious suspect is Keanu Reeves, who is tried and convicted for the murder, after Cate testifies at his trial. You see, the body was found in a pond on his property, after Cate had a vision about it, and Keanu had been having an affair with her and had been the last person known to have seen the deceased alive.

After the trial, however, Cate has visions that lead her to believe that the real killer has escaped justice. While there are a number of red herrings that are thrown the viewer's way, the viewer should have no trouble zeroing in on the real killer. What is surprising is the way Cate escapes death at the hands of that killer. Therein lies the real surprise. Viewers should enjoy this quirky, though interesting, film.

Cate Blanchett stars as Annie Wilson, a young widow with three sons to raise -- her husband was killed a year before the story in a work-related accident. She and the boys survive on a social security check each month -- to further make ends meet, she gives 'readings' to various members of the small Georgia community of Brixton, calling her talent a 'gift'. She accepts donations, but doesn't set prices -- she doesn't come across as a sideshow fortune teller here. She doesn't have the power to read minds -- or, in a courtroom scene, to tell an attorney how many fingers he's holding up behind his back -- and she never makes any claims in that area. Her gift comes to her in the form of visions or dreams -- sometimes they occur when she's giving a reading, sometimes they come unexpectedly.

One of her clients is a battered wife (Hilary Swank) of a angry, ignorant redneck (played with frightening reality by Keanu Reeves) -- she advises the woman to leave her husband before he puts her in the hospital, advice that sends him to her home to threaten her and her children when he learns of it. Another of her clients, an extremely troubled man named Buddy, is given an outstanding portrayal by Giovanni Ribisi -- the character is seething with (believable) inner torment, which, as the story progresses, we see to be long-buried anger toward his father. Ribisi infuses his character with an incredible level of emotion and vulnerability. Greg Kinnear plays Wayne, the handsome school principal engaged to a beautiful but fairly trampy daughter of a successful local businessman. When this woman turns up missing and local law enforcement runs out of leads, the skeptical sheriff reluctantly turns to Annie for help. Through a series of visions, she aids them in finding the body, the violent redneck is arrested and put on trial...and then the twists begin. From here, you're on your own...NO SPOILERS! Suffice to say that the twists and turns don't always lead where you think they will.

Aside from the well-written story, the skillful direction, and the superb acting in this film, the thing that jumped out at me was noticing how many of these characters were in deep denial of their own primal pain. In one scene, one of Annie's sons asks her at bedtime why they don't go more often to visit their father's grave, why they don't talk about him. She replies by telling him to go to bed, that she wants to read. In doing this, her character is, in effect, telling this child (perhaps not intentionally) that his feelings don't matter -- but at the same time, she's denying her own pain, perhaps stemming from her husband's death. Hilary Swank's battered wife character is in denial that she doesn't deserve to live as a punching bag, that there might be a better way to go through her life. Keanu Reeves redneck Donnie is in denial of his own violent, woman-hating, hungry-for-control nature. The high school principal is blind to the fact that his wife-to-be is a trollop who neither loves nor respects him. And most touchingly, we see Giovanni Ribisi take his character through some very moving realizations about his own childhood and his relationship with his father.

The film is very dark and suspenseful -- and at times very jarring in its imagery and violence, but these moments are brief. It's certainly not exploitive in this regard. It's extremely entertaining -- I don't think most viewers would lose interest as it moves along -- but mostly it's very revealing about the way we humans deal with the primal pain that we all hold within us. Ribisi's character describes it very accurately as a wall in his head that he can't get past -- until we face whatever it iis that iis causing us pain, and deal with it as it stands, we won't get past it, and it will continue to torment us and, in some cases, rule over us. We each have to realize that we need to feel the hurt in order to begin to heal -- not a very attractive prospect, perhaps, but a realistic one.

This outstanding film shines a bright light on this aspect of the human psyche -- it's something from which we could all benefit in viewing more closely. Audiences may have been uncomfortable with this film in theatres because of this aspect -- and they may not have realized why.