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Cinema
Releases - March 2, 2001
The
Gift
***
Certificate 15. 111 minutes. Directed by Sam
Raimi. Written by Tom Epperson, Billy Bob Thornton. Starring Cate Blanchett,
Giovanni Ribisi, Keanu Reeves, Katie Holmes, Greg Kinnear, Hilary Swank,
Michael Jeter.
Proof of
Life
***
Certificate 15. 135 minutes. Directed by Taylor
Hackford. Written by Tony Gilroy, from the book "Long March to Freedom" by
Thomas Hargrove and the article "Adventures in the Ransom Trade" by William
Prochnau. Starring Meg Ryan, Russell Crowe, David Morse, Pamela Reed, David
Caruso.
If Lasse Hallstrom is a director of good sentimental
movies who has concerned me this week by making a bad one, Sam Raimi is a
director whose general career evolution has been worrying as of late. Last
week I reviewed "Finding Forrester" and chastised Gus Van Sant for following
up his mainstream effort "Good Will Hunting" with an even more conventional
retread of the same story. Now I take a moment to pray for Raimi, the man
behind such oddities as "The Evil Dead" and "Darkman", who made a terrifically
dark studio picture in "A Simple Plan" (1998), then a disastrously bland
one in the Kevin Costner baseball drama "For Love of the Game" (1999). Oh
Lord, so many movie lovers muttered, please may dear Sam not have sold
out…
It was with trepidation that I approached
"The Gift", yet another studio effort from Raimi, which the
ads make look like a cheesy small-town horror pic. But, quite simply, it
works. Cate Blanchett stars as a quiet single mother in a small Southern
town, who possesses psychic powers and makes something of a living by accepting
donations for tarot readings and similar such counselling. Things get tense
when Blanchett gets in deep with a battered wife (Hilary Swank) and her publicly
aggressive husband (Keanu Reeves), and there is murder in the village, and
poltergeist trouble, and all manner of distressing stuff.
The film is directed in a disarmingly low-key
manner; not just quiet creepiness, although there is plenty of that, but
careful attention to the drama. Blanchett's is a convincing character, with
backstory and domestic life depicted in the kind of detail that would be
at home in a calm character study. Not only is this involving in itself,
but later on, when Raimi drifts into harsher territory, the lack of dumb
frenzy from Blanchett makes her peril all the more unsettling.
There are other unexpectedly impressive features:
Murder mystery subplots almost never work in the movies, because they've
been done so many times we can always work out who did it; although in "The
Gift" the person we're supposed to think did it is fairly obviously not the
killer, there are several characters who could quite easily be the 'surprise'
culprit. The truly gruesome nature of the supernatural scenes are a shocking
contrast to the otherwise composed course of the movie. And as far as the
performances go, Keanu, who's hard to picture as anything but a nice guy
or a hero, is effective as a brutal redneck. Ah, how happy Ukey gets when
films offer surprises.
.
I could go on for quite a while about the flaws
of "Proof of Life", but it's still a worthy and involving movie.
Considering the volume of the publicity surrounding it -- this was the production
where a crew member got killed on location, and where Meg Ryan and Russell
Crowe fell in love -- it's pretty remarkable that during my viewing I didn't
think about it once.
Ryan stars as the wife of a U.S. contractor (David
Morse) building an oil pipeline in South America, who gets kidnapped by
guerrillas and held to ransom. In comes Crowe, the Kidnap & Ransom consultant
for Morse's insurance company, to explain the situation and negotiate with
the crooks. The movie isn't as awe-inspiring as the filmmakers have been
saying in interviews about how it reveals the little-known mechanics of the
K & R industry, but it is fairly intriguing to learn just how systematic
a business it is, how many companies consider it in their official documents,
and how much money tends to be exchanged.
Another strength is the subtle, believable way
the Crowe and Ryan characters fall in love -- there's convincing depiction
of their honest communication and the way the toughness of the situation
draws them together, and of how their body language gradually gets more intimate
even in such tiny details as the way they sit down and drink. The parallel
story, of Morse's time in captivity, also has an appealing toughness and
danger to it, as well as fine structure.
Flaws include the picture's general sameness of
pace, the predictability and inevitably unsatisfying nature of the conclusion,
and the fact that the screenwriters feel the need to leap from talking-heads
drama to an action conclusion, complete with screaming, camouflage paint
and rocket launchers.
On the whole, though, this is a solid enough picture;
Hackford ("The Devil's Advocate", "An Officer and a Gentleman") is a reliable
and professional director, Crowe and Ryan are proven stars with talent and
class, and Morse, as I say whenever I get the opportunity, is one of the
finest supporting actors around these days. They've done better work, and
will do again, but this is okay material and will do for now -- any movie
whose climax so closely resembles that of "Missing in Action" and still doesn't
make us giggle has got to be doing something right.
COPYRIGHT©
2001 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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