Grade: B

Verdict: The treat here is the opportunity to watch the gifted Cate Blanchett.

Details: Starring Cate Blanchett, Keanu Reeves, Hilary Swank and Giovanni Ribisi. Directed by Sam Raimi. Rated R for profanity, violence, nudity and very brief sex. One hour, 52 minutes.

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Review: There's another Wilson in the movie theaters and it's not a volleyball that's a close personal friend of Tom Hanks. This Wilson is Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchett), a young widow raising her three boys in a tiny Georgia town (actually, low-profile parts of Savannah and neighboring Effingham County, where the movie was filmed).

One other thing about Annie: She's got psychic powers, meaning she sees as many dead people as little Haley Joel Osment. Her gift — or, perhaps, curse — provides the title for “The Gift,” a Southern Gothic murder mystery with supernatural trappings. The film isn't entirely successful but it benefits strongly from Blanchett's stirring performance and from director Sam Raimi, who cut his teeth on spooky stuff such as the “Evil Dead” movies.

Annie, who's just a step away from a trailer park, supports her family by doing readings. Her clients range from a battered wife (last year's Oscar winner Hilary Swank from “Boys Don't Cry”) to a mentally unstable mechanic (Giovanni Ribisi) whose unwavering loyalty to Annie takes some odd twists. Also in the picture are Swank's abusive white-trash hubby (Keanu Reeves), who doesn't cotton to his wife's sessions with Annie; an amiable, gentlemanly school principal (Greg Kinnear); and Kinnear's spoiled socialite fiancée (Katie Holmes).

Annie knows something's up when her dead granny ambles into the back yard and warns her, “Looks like there's a storm coming.” Granny is dead right (or is that dead and right). Sure enough, Annie is soon at the center of a maelstrom. There's been a brutal murder and the local sheriff, though skeptical of her visions, asks Annie to help find the killer.

For practiced mystery buffs, the who in Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson's whodunit is pretty obvious. However, what works best here isn't the red-herring-strewn plot but its shrewd details. Raimi creates some ominously chilling visions for Annie. And the ensemble cast does well with the broadly drawn characters. Holmes nails the flirty country-club vixen while Reeves is properly doltish as the brutish husband. And Ribisi conveys his character's instability beautifully.

But the true gift in “The Gift” is Blanchett's exceptional performance. Her grounded intelligence and subtle craft holds the movie together even at its most overheated. Effortlessly assuming the squinty-eyed manner and lank hair of a certain breed of Southerner, she is that rare thing — a beauty with the skills of a chameleon.

“The Gift,” while entertaining, probably isn't strong enough overall to nab her another Oscar nomination. But that role will come along soon enough and she'll be ready.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution