The Gift (2000)

**_Whodunnit Southern Gothic with Cate Blanchett_** In a town near coastal Georgia, a widow (Cate Blanchett) struggles to make ends meet with her three boys via her psychic abilities. When a young woman goes missing (Katie Holmes), the authorities ask her for assistance. Greg Kinnear, Keanu Reeves, Hilary Swank, Giovanni Ribisi, Gary Cole and JK Simmons are all on hand. “The Gift” (2001) meshes plot elements of “Resurrection” (1980) with the setting or tone of “Murder in Coweta County,” “The General’s Daughter” and a little “Cape Fear” (1991). You can’t beat the cast and the Southern town ambiance is great, plus the flawed characters are nicely fleshed-out. There are no less than five possibilities of who the culprit is and, with 20 minutes to go, it becomes clear who it is. Regrettably, it’s just so cliched and contrived I rolled my eyes, not to mention it ‘steals’ the hope of the viewer. I don’t want to say more because I don’t want to give anything away. Still, if you can roll with that banal element, it’s a quality drama with a worthy point. Both Cate and Holmes are fetching in a girl-next-door kind of way. It runs 1 hour, 51 minutes, and was shot in the Savannah area (Guyton, Thunderbolt and Springfield). GRADE: B-/B