The Gift

Starring: Cate Blanchett, Keanu Reaves, Katie Holmes, Greg Kinnear, Giovanni Ribisi, Hilary Swank, that Peter Parker's grandma-aunty from the SPIDERMAN movies, that weirdo-boss from OFFICE SPACE, and that old prisoner who had the circus mouse in THE GREEN MILE

Damn, this movie was packed with talent! If only I had recognized this in 2000, I would've maybe watched it then instead of now. I just remember Keanu Reeves playing a bad guy and thinking, "Whoa, Ted from BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE can't play no villain!" I don't think I even knew who Cate Blanchett was. Or Hilary Swank.

THE GIFT is true to its title. It's a movie that presents itself across several different genres. First of all, you've got the country bumpkin trailer trash aspect. Blanchett is a widowed single-mom with three kids who reads peoples' fortunes on the side to make money. All these ignorant bozos with issues come to her to get answers and look up to her almost as a guidance counselor. She plays the role straight. Nothing cheesy about her so-called fortune-telling. For some reason, I've always found Blanchett to be somewhat attractive in a vanilla sort of way. I don't know why. I just do.

Problems start when beaten-down Swank enters the movie asking for advice from Blanchett when everyone knows that she should leave her wife-beater of a husband, Keanu Reeves. Reeves surprisingly plays the menacing-bully role pretty damn good. I was pretty impressed. And he didn't have to use any of that lame MATRIX martial arts. He and Swank kinda represent the violent part of the movie.

Katie Holmes and Greg Kinnear are the happily engaged couple. Only problem is, Greg's the good-guy-principal-of-the-local-elementary-school and Holmes is the town whore. She shows her t!tties. They were actually bigger than I thought they would be. I wonder if Tom Cruise saw this movie and thought, "I have to meet her..." This could represent the scandalous part of the movie.

Ribisi plays this kinda mental guy who everyone's afraid of. Doesn't he always play the retarded guy? He, along with Swank, are among Blanchett's regular clientele. More like irregular though.

Anyway, somebody gets killed, Blanchett "sees" it, and the little town goes crazy. That's all I'm gonna say. The whole movie's suspenseful, so I don't want to ruin it.

Considering that this was an old movie, we definitely enjoyed it. I'd have to say that as far as thrillers go, this one was pretty up there. Especially recently with all the junk that we've watched. I'm glad that we rented it and I highly recommend it. You'll be entertained throughout. I give this movie two hairy palms to be read...but you can't see anything...too much hair...too many blisters...too much lotion on it...blinded...don't wanna talk about it...you know what you gotta stop doing...