The Gift film review

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THE GIFT

Small towns often breed dark secrets and never more so than in Sam Raimi's sweaty thriller, set along the steamy bayous of deepest Georgia.

High school principal Wayne Collins (Kinnear) is distraught when his lovely fiancee, socialite Jessica King (Holmes), goes missing in the middle of the night.

In desperation, Wayne turns to town psychic and fortune-teller Annie Wilson (Blanchett) for help, hoping her mystical cards will offer some glimpse of Jessica's whereabouts.

Annie begins receiving strange visions and leads the police to Jessica's watery grave, on land owned by wife-beating thug Donnie Barksdale (Reeves). The evidence seems pretty compelling but as Donnie begins his trial in the dock, Annie begins to have doubts about his guilt.

The Gift is a little too pedestrian to always operate effectively as a thriller. The narrative is too linear, with far too few twists to keep audiences guessing.

Blanchett is stunning, playing her reluctant clairvoyant with a heart-breaking innocence and fragility. There is a palpable sense of desperation in Blanchett's performance, as Annie is dragged through thewringer, at the mercy of her so-called gift.

Ribisi is incredibly good too as a gentle soul haunted by the demons of domestic violence. The scene where Buddy wreaks long overdue revenge on his father is truly terrifying.

The biggest surprises are the supporting cast. Reeves shrugs off his slacker, nice guy persona to convincingly essay an unrepentant wife-beater. It's arguably the best performance of his career - you can almost see thehatred in his character's eyes.

Holmes finally graduates from teen roles to full-blooded screen adulthood. Her town temptress proves her maturity as an actress.