Now I liked this movie which is probably because I could not work this one out until very near the end and it made me top me hat. I don’t mean lift a top hat off my head but just raise the corner of my baseball cap in appreciation of it. This was released in 2000 and cost $10m to make and grossed $44.6m at the box office which a relatively small marketing push was enough to make a little bit of money. Those that liked Evil Dead 1 & 2 or Spiderman 1,2 & 3 this was director by Sam Raimi and also boast a cast of Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi, Keanu Reeves, Katie Holmes, Greg Kinnear and Hilary Swank. Now giving you a plot about a mystery is going to be challenge for me isn’t it. Before I do, I will give you the usual comparisons with the other two reviewers as IMDb gave it 6.6/10 and it’s on Rotten Tomatoes at 57%.
Shall we move onto the plot which involves Cate Blanchett as Annie Wilson living in a town called Brixton in Georgia and I call it a town it’s a sleepy oversized village in the mild of a swamp. The rest of the states has moved on but they have decided to stay where they are. Annie is a single parent and makes money by doing readings. Having ‘The Gift’ she offers card reading for people and also regularly see’s visions from her inner eye. When she goes to the school to meet the principle about an issue, she meets the perfect couple. That being Wayne Collins (Greg Kinnear) the school principle who is engaged to be married to Jessica King (Katie Hopkins) who arrives before Annie gets to leave. And Jessica asks if she can see their perfect future together but Annie goes into a vision which terrifies her rather than put a smile on her face. Low and behold Jessica goes missing and Annie starts having visions suggesting that she is dead and at the bottom of a bog. Queue a line of mainly males and a couple of females who could behind such a horrible thing. Well a bit like the Eyes of Laura Mars now she can see the bad things happening now the nasty one knows they are being watched which in turn makes Annie the next target to close the circle and let whoever it is escape.
Well I enjoyed this movie and I did so without realising this was the work of Sam Raimi and sees a very different type of movie and before I forget this was televised over here (in the UK) and the advert for this movie had nothing of the plot but just said the movie where Katie Hopkins gets a boobs out. Well she does I am not going to lie but this movie is so much more than that and that promotion really stuck in my mind. Not because it was sexist, pointless or just down right stupid it diminished what this movie was and is. It is a mystery movie a who done it with a minimum of star names but actors that were so good that they went on to win Oscars or be nominated for one. It’s a dark and gritty movie in places and has the element of a potential killer in the midst of a woman claiming to be able to see things no one else can see and then trying to convince a police chief that she knows where Jessica is and not put herself in the frame for the offence. It works, well it did for me and I would recommend it to you. Go on give it a try (oh and before I forget check the year when selecting the movie as this version of 'The Gift' was the 2000 version as there have been many movies with the same name!)
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