Kathy W 2008-06-22
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A thoroughly enjoyable and suspenseful story with an outstanding cast of mighty fine actors, this movie is laced with a few twists and turns. It begins in the South, around the swamplands in Alabama, I believe. Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchette) is a widow with 3 boys to raise. Her husband died about a year ago. She gets a small Social Security check and supplements it with donations she receives for giving (psychic) card readings for the local people. Valerie Barksdale (Hilary Swank) is one of her fairly frequent customers. Valerie's husband Donnie Barksdale (Keanu Reeves) is very physically and verbally abusive to Valerie. We are talking black eyes, dragging by the hair, etc. Donnie is also a serious redneck. Valerie is always sneaking off to see Annie and asking Annie what to do. Then Donnie gets mad at Valerie for going to see Annie. Donnie also gets mad because Annie tells Valerie to leave Donnie. He tells Annie to "STAY AWAY FROM MY WIFE!" and starts threatening Annie and her boys, but, I'm jumping a tad ahead of myself.
Annie is called to school because one of her boys was fighting. He is still very angry over his father's death. The teacher is the fine actor Greg Kinnear (Wayne)(the gay guy in "As Good As It Gets"). I LOVE him. He is always such a great asset to any movie. Wayne is an easy-tempered school teacher. Wayne's fiancee, Jessica, is a bit free-spirited with the men in town. Of course, she sneaks off for her little escapades when Wayne is not looking.
Back to Annie--Annie is low on money and she has a friend "Buddy" in town. Buddy is the local mechanic and all his pistons are not firing properly. I mean, Buddy has some real serious issues, stemming from childhood abuse by his daddy. Annie just tries to be his friend and help him out. To say that Buddy has demons in his head, figuratively, is somewhat of an understatement. Buddy is always seeking advice from Annie cause he is seriously messed up, and you find out why later in the movie. Anyway, Buddy keeps Annie's car running for her and lets her pay later, which really helps Annie out.
Now, Annie is a psychic who see glimpses of the past and the future. She also is a medium. She sees people occassionally from "the other side". While she is outside, Granny stops by (deceased) and tells Annie "A storm is coming." Annie sees a bloddy vision. Granny tells Annie, "Always use your instincts, Annie".
Later, Annie is at a party and accidentally opens a door and sees Jessica getting it on with some guy at a party, but Jessica is preoccupied and doesn't see Annie. When Annie returns home after the party, it is obvious that someone has been in her house. She finds her TV on, bedroom window open, and her reading cards laid out on the bed to spell "SATAN". Now, good-ole-boy Donnie was calling her "witch" and making related comments when he was threatening her before, so she figures it was Donnie. She tells the police but, since the cop and Donnie are squirrel-hunting buddies, the cop says it couldn't be Donnie. Things heat up as Donnie continues to threaten Annie, as Buddy keeps talking about "the blue diamond" and how he hates his daddy, as Jessica keeps ho-ing around, and as Annie keeps reading her cards for people. Annie dreams/visions of being choked. Jessica disappears. Donnie threatens one of Annie's boys on the road and tells him his momma is a witch and somebody might kill her. After Jessica disappears, Annie starts seeing visions of her being dead and she keeps waking up at 1:30 am.
Like I said, twists and turns--I found it very good. I could not walk away for even a minute without hitting the pause button. Gary Cole also plays a prosecutor. The movie is about 2 hours long. I loved it and even though I know what happens, I will still watch it again. The movie was great, both in storyline and performances.
