At The Movies

The Gift'

Detroit-area native Sam Raimi continues to make
his mark as a director on Hollywood's A-list.

a former Franklin, Mich., resident and
Groves High School graduate who
formed the Society of Creative
Filmmaking and planned film festivals
here's something about the
for like-minded students during his
atmosphere of America's
college days at Michigan State
deep South that lends itself
University, earned his first professional
to dark, thrilling tales of
recognition from his Evil Dead horror
Gothic horror and domestic violence,
film series.
whether it's the novels of William
And while he may have had trepida-
Faulkner, the plays of Tennessee
tion about elements of The Gift, he
Williams, or, more recently, the
was convinced they could be dealt
screenplays of Billy Bob Thornton.
with honesty, if the right cast could be
In fact, Thornton's latest script, The
assembled. And the cast the film's pro-
Gift (written in collaboration with
ducers gathered thrilled him.
Tom Epperson) is so dark and sinister,
For the crucial role of Annie
involving scenes of wife-beating• mur-
Wilson, the well-meaning psychic
der and the latent trauma of child
whose "gift" leads her into a morass of
abuse, that when director Sam Raimi
domestic violence and a murder inves-
was given a copy to read, with an eye -
tigation, Raimi wanted, and got, Cate
toward directing the project, he found
Blanchett,
the Academy Award-nomi-
himself repelled by the story.
nated star of Elizabeth, and a co-star
"When I read the script the first
in Thornton's film, Pushing Tin.
time," said the soft-spoken director of
Keanu Reeves, Katie Holmes, Greg
A Simple Plan, "I put it down halfway
Kinnear and Hilary Swank round out
through. I thought, 'I don't want to
the cast.
have anything to do with this; it's too
At the center of the story is
miserable.'
Blanchett's
character, whose "gift"
"But my wife encouraged me to read
allows
her
to
foresee the series of
the whole thing. I did. And the way
dreadful events that are coming, but
the story turns out, the main character
who is powerless to effect them, or to
(a young widow with three boys, who
escape the personal animosity that is
makes a meager living as a psychic
directed against her because of her
card-reader) ultimately finds her way
involvement.
out of the darkness, and attains a
As research for her role, Blanchett,
degree of redemption for herself and
who said she's never been
her family. That idea
interested in having any-
Sam
Raimi
directs
appealed to me very
one gaze into her future,
Cate Blanchett on the
much."
met with several local psy-
set of "The Gifi ."
The 40-year-old Raimi,

JIM FARBER

Copley News Service

T

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