The Gift

This movie was fine, as far as murder mysteries with "things that go bump in the night" go. I had to clench my jaw a few times to keep from biting off my tongue in fear because I knew something was about to jump out at me. But it wasn't one of those movies that gets so scary that I start thinking something is sneaking up behind me in real life. I remember watching a movie once (could it have been White Noise? I'm not sure) that got me so rattled that I had to call Hud at work in order to feel a link with reality. This one never got that bad. 

Suspense thrillers may be my favorite kind of movie--especially those with unforeseen plot twists that keep me guessing throughout the whole thing. This movie was somewhat disappointing in its lack of twists and in how obvious the killer's identity was from the moment the main character, Annie (Cate Blanchett), went to his house. We did get a nice little montage of all of the possible murder suspects right before the final confirmation of the real one that sort of briefly caused me to doubt my certainty (fulfilling its intended purpose, I'm sure). But I can not think of a single thing that was revealed in this movie that surprised me. By the time the characters figured out each "surprising revelation", I already knew. Oh, except for the blue diamond. I didn't know what the heck Buddy was talking about until they actually showed the blue diamond. But I did already understand its significance. 

OK, so I will admit that I didn't guess the killer right from the beginning. In fact I probably at some point or another suspected every single character in the movie except for Annie and her kids. So to say that I guessed who the killer was, out of the many I suspected, is kind of cheating. It was bound to be one of the many.