The Gift HD-DVD
What?
Cate Blanchett plays Annie Wilson, a widow and mother of three living in a small town barely making her living as a psychic telling the fortune of others. When Donnie, the violent husband of one of her clients, suspects that she is trying to split them apart he begins a torrent of abuse and threatening behaviour which begins to put her and her family at risk. With Donnie on her mind, Annie becomes plagued by visions and horrifying dreams of missing towns-girl Jessica King (Katie Holmes) the fiance of local school principal Wayne Collins (Greg Kinnear). With nowhere else to turn the police and Wayne look to Annie in desperation, hoping that her Gift can help shed some light on the disappearance of Jessica.
Directed by the increasingly dependable and extremely talented Sam Raimi, The Gift is an impressively atmospheric and very enjoyable supernatural thriller, which scares and thrills in equal doses. Much like Raimi's previous film 'A Simple Plan', The Gift seemed to pass by relatively unnoticed at the cinema and is thus practically unheard of on DVD. Again though, much like A Simple Plan, this film deserves much more recognition as it is a very well crafted and very well acted film. Cate Blanchett as the lead is absolutely sensational while the impressive cast including Giovanni Ribisi and Greg Kinnear all put in superb performances.
The Gift works well as a supernatural thriller, there are twists to keep you guessing, jumps to keep you on the edge of your seat and a story that'll keep you hooked.
Optics:
When looking at an HD-DVD for the first time I analyse the image like a hawk at first trying to work out if the transfer is a good one or not. The first thing that struck me about this image is that it lacks the fine detail and sharpness associated with the top releases. Close ups do not reveal that extra, extra detail we have now come to expect, while backgrounds in the darker scenes do not provide a real three dimensional quality. Thankfully colour reproduction pleases with most of the brighter colours jumping off the screen, while the overall colour palette appears very natural.
I still haven't seen an HD-DVD release thet hasn't actually improved over the original release and this is no exception to that rule. While the image is softer than expected it looks sharper and certainly shows more detail. We are obviously not talking about a huge jump in terms of quality when comparing the old region one release and this Japanese HD-DVD, but there is an improvement none the less.
Sonics:
The Dolby Digital Plus track is clear, crisp and perfectly suited to the film. Dialogue is always audible and understandble while the odd 'scare effect' comes through loud and clear. As with my old Dolby Digital version, there are a few ambient surround effects throughout while separation through the fronts three speakers is good.
Extras:
Except for the cast and crew biographies which are written in Japanese, all of the extras included are in English with Japanese subtitles. What we have is a short making of featurette, a selection of individual interviews with the cast and crew, a music video and a selection of trailers and TV spots.
Well?
The Gift is definitely an underrated film that deserves more recognition along the same lines as Raimi's superb 'A Simple Plan'. The disc itself is an improvement over previous standard definition releases in the audio and image department as well as the extras.
Tom Day
Cate Blanchett plays Annie Wilson, a widow and mother of three living in a small town barely making her living as a psychic telling the fortune of others. When Donnie, the violent husband of one of her clients, suspects that she is trying to split them apart he begins a torrent of abuse and threatening behaviour which begins to put her and her family at risk. With Donnie on her mind, Annie becomes plagued by visions and horrifying dreams of missing towns-girl Jessica King (Katie Holmes) the fiance of local school principal Wayne Collins (Greg Kinnear). With nowhere else to turn the police and Wayne look to Annie in desperation, hoping that her Gift can help shed some light on the disappearance of Jessica.
Directed by the increasingly dependable and extremely talented Sam Raimi, The Gift is an impressively atmospheric and very enjoyable supernatural thriller, which scares and thrills in equal doses. Much like Raimi's previous film 'A Simple Plan', The Gift seemed to pass by relatively unnoticed at the cinema and is thus practically unheard of on DVD. Again though, much like A Simple Plan, this film deserves much more recognition as it is a very well crafted and very well acted film. Cate Blanchett as the lead is absolutely sensational while the impressive cast including Giovanni Ribisi and Greg Kinnear all put in superb performances.
The Gift works well as a supernatural thriller, there are twists to keep you guessing, jumps to keep you on the edge of your seat and a story that'll keep you hooked.
Optics:
When looking at an HD-DVD for the first time I analyse the image like a hawk at first trying to work out if the transfer is a good one or not. The first thing that struck me about this image is that it lacks the fine detail and sharpness associated with the top releases. Close ups do not reveal that extra, extra detail we have now come to expect, while backgrounds in the darker scenes do not provide a real three dimensional quality. Thankfully colour reproduction pleases with most of the brighter colours jumping off the screen, while the overall colour palette appears very natural.
I still haven't seen an HD-DVD release thet hasn't actually improved over the original release and this is no exception to that rule. While the image is softer than expected it looks sharper and certainly shows more detail. We are obviously not talking about a huge jump in terms of quality when comparing the old region one release and this Japanese HD-DVD, but there is an improvement none the less.
Sonics:
The Dolby Digital Plus track is clear, crisp and perfectly suited to the film. Dialogue is always audible and understandble while the odd 'scare effect' comes through loud and clear. As with my old Dolby Digital version, there are a few ambient surround effects throughout while separation through the fronts three speakers is good.
Extras:
Except for the cast and crew biographies which are written in Japanese, all of the extras included are in English with Japanese subtitles. What we have is a short making of featurette, a selection of individual interviews with the cast and crew, a music video and a selection of trailers and TV spots.
Well?
The Gift is definitely an underrated film that deserves more recognition along the same lines as Raimi's superb 'A Simple Plan'. The disc itself is an improvement over previous standard definition releases in the audio and image department as well as the extras.
Tom Day
Director:
Sam Raimi
Starring:
Cate Blanchett
Giovanni Ribisi
Greg Kinnear
Hilary Swank
Keanu Reeves
Katie Holmes
Best line:
"Do you think we'll live happily ever after?"
Tagline:
"The only witness to the crime was not even there"
Description:
Toshisba
Japan
1Hr 44 Mins
1.85:1
(Anamorphic)
Dolby Digital Plus 5.1
MPEG4
Making of featurette
Cast and crew interviews
Cast and crew bios
Trailers
TV spots
Music video
Ratings: (Out of 5)
Film 7.0
Optics 6.0
Sonics 6.5
Extras 5.0
Overall 6.5
