Overdrawn, predictable, sensational, miscast are the most obvious comments about "The Gift", and yet, in the character of Annie Wilson, Cate Blanchette has single-handedly saved this film. This is a complex woman, gifted with clairvoyance yet guarded in how she reveals it, generous with her love yet mindful of love's limits, and vulnerable to what unfolds before her yet strong enough to take life's punches. "The Gift" does have suspenseful moments - a local harlot killed, it would seem, by an obvious suspect yet three other people have motives for the crime and the film does a good job of bringing them out. The film, however, telegraphs the villain to us long before the climax and has the audacity to make believe we would not know. It also undercuts itself by unfolding a very slow story. The supporting cast is adequate but one must wonder about the Greg Kinnear character - at once suave and professional looking and yet trying to be hick like everyone around him. That disconnect never resolves itself. But what does work is Cate Blanchette, which "The Gift" fittingly revolves around and which, by her strong faithful character, makes this film worth watching.
