The Gift
(Region 3 DTS Edition)
(2000)
review by Suspiriorium

Head Cheeze has already written a review of Sam Raimi’s superior supernatural thriller for this site (go here to read it). His opinion is broadly similar to mine, so I shall be brief, although I am perhaps not quite so impressed by the film as he was.

The Gift starts fairly slowly, allowing room to fully flesh out the characters & their relationships before the main plot starts. It can’t be boring however, with such a brilliant cast - & everyone is on great form here, particularly the utterly magnetic Blanchett, abused Swank, & even Reeves turns in a career best (OK, so that’s not saying too much, but he’s still excellent). If anyone had ever had any doubts (although A Simple Plan should have dispelled these), The Gift indisputably proves that Raimi, unlike some other directors, truly is a complete & hugely talented filmmaker, every bit as convincing dealing with actors as he is with the camera (not that there was ever any doubt about the latter!). Rather than full-on gore & horror, The Gift mainly goes for a subtle chills & atmosphere, helped no end by Jamie Anderson’s photography & Christopher Young’s wonderful score (Danny Elfman also makes a cameo as a band member). However, on the couple of occasions when it does turn up the terror knob & deliver the jolts, they are corkers.

Unfortunately, The Gift isn’t as good in the second half, moving into rather dull courtroom drama territory & becoming perhaps a shade too predictable for its own good. Thankfully, there are still some fine moments (& the performances remain stellar) – plus of course there’s Katie Holmes’ topless scene, the subject of much Internet “interest” at the time of the film’s release – to keep things on the right side of good. Despite this slight decline in quality towards the end, The Gift is nevertheless a fine, superbly acted & directed gem that delivers a fine chill quota & rather more emotional impact than you perhaps might have anticipated.

My main reason for writing this brief review, is that I have just purchased the R3 DVD from Universe Laser & Video. Or, more to the point, I have just sold my R3 DVD from Universe Laser & Video. This release has one up on the R1/2 releases by including an English DTS track, in addition to the Dolby 5.1 & 2.0, with optional simplified & traditional Chinese subtitles. That would make it worth checking out you may think – but don’t be tempted. The 1.85:1 picture quality is by far the worst I have yet seen. Pixelisation is a huge problem – I don’t think there is such a thing as a straight diagonal line in the whole film. Sometimes when the picture is still, it actually looks pretty decent, but as soon as the camera moves, it breaks up something horrible & is almost unwatchable. At times I thought it looked a bit like watching the film on Real Player over a slow Internet connection. Quite how such a fairly big, recent film can look as bad as this is beyond me. For extras, there’s just a trailer & none of the other goodies from the R1/2 releases…whatever. Don’t be tempted by the prospect of the DTS track or the cheap price, because this disc is a real Frisbee if ever I saw one. Avoid.