The Gift

Sam Raimi is a genius! A small town where you get a wonderful glimpse into the lives of each of its residents, one swamp and one murder. And one abandoned mother of three who sees in the cards things that she would rather not see. Raimi unravels the tapestry of suspicions and viewer’s questions of “Who is the killer?”, bringing us closer to the fragile protagonist and giving us either pleasant chills or first-class cardiac shocks in her visions and nightmares. Raimi has fulfilled his dream and made a horror movie in which there are no rivers of blood, but it doesn’t let us breathe until the final second. The Gift is a nostalgic tribute to the Hitchcock school of pure thriller techniques in a mosaic of precisely defined characters and a sophisticated plot. And that cast! If it weren’t for the revealing of the killer’s identity twenty minutes before the film's conclusion, its climax would have been even more suspenseful and shocking. And The Gift would have been a five-star genre treat. (27/05/2002)

Sam Raimi is a whiz who can turn a fairly mediocre script into a first-class thriller. It doesn't happen very often when I watch a movie, but I was really scared, and I think that's the best mark. (27/06/2002)

To be honest, this film failed to captivate or entertain me. It’s a standard mysterious thriller that wants to surprise in the end, and fails miserably. The reveal was clear well before it was revealed! It’s not bad, it has too good a cast and director for that, but I think they could have got a lot more out of it. (27/04/2009)

Given that Billy Bob Thornton hasn’t written many scripts, all of them were little gems. And when it is made by an interesting director like Sam Raimi, the guarantee of a quality cross between an interesting idea and unrestrained mainstream is certain. And it is precisely when evaluating Raimi's work that I find myself on shaky ground because surprisingly, he abandoned his typical visual tricks (well, not entirely, as scenes in the woods á la Evil Dead or the bathroom scene can challenge even stronger stomachs) to give maximum space to the actors, who richly reciprocate this "trust." Starting with Cate Blanchett, who seems to be incapable of acting badly, through Keanu Reeves in an atypical role as the antagonist, and ending with Katie Holmes, who compensates for her lack of acting talent in other ways (every viewer should wait for the ending, which, in my opinion, falters a bit, especially in terms of Raimi's delivery, because I guessed what was going to happen about ten minutes beforehand). Just cutting out one scene would make the ending really impactful for me. But that's just a minor criticism of the film, which flows like water, scares, entertains, and most importantly, doesn't fade from your mind after a few days. x (23/07/2005)

This film is dominated by its top-notch atmosphere dominates. Cate Blanchett gives a brilliant performance, but what Giovanni Ribisi (they worked together in another great film, Heaven) delivers here is something absolutely perfect. His role as a psychopath is amazing. (14/06/2004)

If Cate Blanchett, Giovanni "In-every-role-different-and-always-great" Ribisi and Keanu Reeves had not been in The Gift, it would have been a complete waste of time. Seriously, what everyone sees in this film remains a mystery to me. Sam Raimi is a genius? And what exactly has he done here that is brilliant? Yes, he builds the atmosphere of the town solidly, until one wonders why he has never made anything based on Stephen King, but that's about all I can praise him for. Apart from that, there are a few cheesy jump scares, dreams/visions that are also quite simple and not very impressive, the story is particularly bland and it's no problem at all to figure out who the killer is... And what about the final surprise? I felt like I was watching a special episode of the (pretty terrible) series Beyond Belief. (20/01/2012)

Raimi is, in my opinion, one of the most complex directors of our time, able to make an entertaining fantasy adventure with the same verve as a dark thriller about a near-perfect crime shrouded in a series of mysterious and convoluted revelations. The impressive production design and dense atmosphere are just stepping stones towards a perfectly crafted and utterly unpredictable story that imaginatively combines proven genre techniques and gets the best out of the amazing cast. It's dominated by the fragile and frightened clairvoyant Cate Blanchett, whose terrifying premonitions can make even the most hardened viewer jump from their seat, and also by a violent Keanu Reeves, who is not far behind her in a more negative role. The Gift will never be gem of its genre, and its final part lacks the lightness and panache of Raimi's previous narrative, but it’s still a spicy and damn nutritious delicacy that every horror fan should savour. (03/09/2012)

After the third screening, I'm adding a star for the really excellent atmosphere, the music that suits the story to a tee, the really beautiful locations where Raimi has placed the tale of murder, and the beautiful fortune teller played by Cate Blanchett. I think that in the field of "mystery thrillers" The Gift is one of the most successful films ever. (02/05/2009)