In 2000, Cate Blanchett starred in The Gift, an American film directed by Sam Raimi and written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson.
The film was shot in and around Effingham County, Georgia, including the cities of Guyton, Savannah, and Springfield.
Cate plays Annie Wilson, a widow who works as a psychic to support her three children.
Blanchett (Annie) has a psychic gift through which she helps and can warn people about potential events in their lives.
Annie (Cate Blanchett) becomes involved as a “witness” in a murder as a result of a “vision” of the crime.
The film also features Jessica King (Katie Holmes), who disappears, and Annie begins to have visions in which Jessica is murdered and thrown into a pond.
Her body is later found in the lagoon on Donnie Barksdale’s (Keanu Reeves) property, and he is tried and imprisoned. Annie receives another vision warning her that Donnie is innocent, and she realizes that Jessica’s ex-boyfriend, Wayne (Greg Kinnear), is the only one who had the opportunity to kill her.
Cate revealed in an interview that she visited a real psychic to ask about the process, and the psychic told her that she had worked with the police solving cases. Just like Annie, she guides skeptical officers to find Jessica’s killer.
Meanwhile, Annie deals with unresolved conflicts within her own family, Donnie’s threats, and Buddy’s constant demands to know what haunts him from his past.
It’s a mystery film, with a well-crafted script by Billy Bob Thornton, directed by Sam Raimi, and starring Cate Blanchett, accompanied by Giovanni Ribisi (Buddy Cole), Keanu Reeves (Donnie Barksdale), Katie Holmes (Jessica King), Greg Kinnear (Wayne Collins), Hilary Swank (Valerie Barksdale), among others.