Black Eyes in Brixton
The Gift(18)
Directed by Sam Raimi, written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson. Running time: 112 minutes.
Annie Wilson: Cate Blanchett Buddy Cole: Giovanni Ribisi Donnie Barksdale: Keanu Reeves Wayne Collins: Greg Kinnear Valerie Barksdale: Hilary Swank Jessica King: Katie Holmes
The Gift is a sort of Southern Fried EastEnders on stilts. The setting is the interconnected lives of humdrum disfunctional proles to whom far far too much happens. The Gift is also much more than that. It is as near a perfect a movie as I've seen in the past 12 months, or longer. It's brave: Keanu Reeves is bad; Cate Blanchett is ordinary; Greg Kinnear is not funny. Raimi delivers the shocks and pace, as expected, but he's also gently observant, allowing nuance, especially from Blanchett, to speak volumes.
It's possible that, with another director, The Gift, might have taken a different course. Annie Wilson (Blanchett), reads fortunes, but she uses ESP cards, and seems to go on intuition as much as anything. Raimi does not stray far from the supernatural, however, and even as Wilson seems to be a pretty unreliable psychic, the interpretation that she's a (self-decieving) phoney is ruled out. Instead, all concerned make hay with the very weakness of her 'gift'. Regular folks, like cops and lawyers don't believe her. Well, she does dream things of the sort you get after a late night cheese snack.
Brixton, Ga, where The Gift is set, is much given to dark and stormy nights. The whole town, where everybody pretty much knows everybody else, has a clammy, creepy feel to the city dweller. Annie Wilson is perhaps best described as the local wise-woman, if you support her, and as a witch if like Donnie Barksdale (Keanu Reeves), you don't. Reeves makes a good fist of being no good, his character is defined clearly enough by his the black eye his wife (Hilary Swank) reveals to Wilson right at the start.
The script is wholly intelligent, far above what you expect in a gore fest. The film takes stock actors, and does surprising things with them. It takes a stock Southern redneck town, where the law spend their time leaning back in their chairs and eating cakes, and develops it with style. And it melds perfectly a classic whodunnit with a spooky horror tale. How good is the script? Let's go back to Keanu's Donnie Barksdale. First we're told he's bad - he beats up his wife. Then he shows it: he threatens the sweet and reasonable Annie Wilson. Then, he makes a racist comment "You're no better than a nigger or a Jew" But racism is now stock Hollywood shorthand for this feller is a wrong 'un. Are they hitting us over the head - or setting us up?
Clever, observant, occasionally even funny, The Gift has few weaknesses. Perhaps the camera is too generous, only Ribisi looks poor; every one else has a sheen too much of glamour. But this is a film, and we are supposed to look at them for close on two hours without strain, so that's a gripe too far. I thoroughly enjoyed it: even the subtle homage to Reservoir Dogs.
