In theaters

THE GIFT. 112 minutes, R, directed by Sam Raimi, written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson.

The new Sam Raimi film, “The Gift,” an old-school, Southern Gothic thriller charged with strong performances, gorgeous cinematography and a rich, involving story that grips from the get-go, is pure pulp entertainment, a movie that’s imminently watchable in spite of its handful of missteps.

As predictable as it is, the film, from a script by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson, nevertheless manages to weave a mesmerizing narrative, one that satisfies in large part because of its superb cast.

At the center of the film is another terrific performance from Australian actress Cate Blanchett, a master actress who consistently delivers performances so transcendent and pure, she tends to lift whatever film she’s in. As her successful turns in “Elizabeth,” “Pushing Tin” and “The Talented Mr. Ripley” prove, Blanchett – one of our best actresses – has been stealing the show for years.

Such is the case in “The Gift.” As Annie Wilson, a young backwater widow who inherited her grandmother’s gift for psychic powers, Blanchett’s quiet intensity grounds a movie that easily could have given itself over to Southern-fried camp.

She doesn’t play Annie as if she’s cinema’s answer to Madame Cleo, the ribald Jamaican Tarot card reader dispensing her foot-stomping brand of advice on television. Instead, she plays Annie as a warm, compassionate woman of great sensitivity and humility, a mother of three boys from a small Georgia town who’s fully aware that her gift has the power to change lives.

About those lives – it’s a shame the film doesn’t give Annie a character as interesting as she to work with. Instead, the script is more content to offer her a whole host of Southern stereotypes, including an emotionally troubled car mechanic (Giovanni Ribisi) whose father abused him as a child, and a battered wife (Hilary Swank) whose violent husband, Donnie (Keanu Reaves in one of his best performances), swears he will kill Annie if she doesn’t stop pushing for his wife to leave him.

Toss into this stew a passive-aggressive school principal (Greg Kinnear) who’s engaged to the town tramp (Katie Holmes), a woman who eventually winds up naked and chained at the bottom of the town swamp, and the film starts to crank up the heat in a whodunit that plays fair until its final moments, when – inexplicably – Raimi breaks the film’s momentum with a false note of divine intervention.

Still, as forced as its ending is, “The Gift” is mostly a pleasure. Raimi, who made his name directing the “Evil Dead” series before going on to direct better films such as “A Simple Plan” and “For Love of the Game,” is a sharp craftsman, one who knows how to keep a story moving – and an audience interested.

Grade: B+

On video and DVD

BRING IT ON. 95 minutes, PG-13, directed by Peyton Reed, written by Jessica Bendinger.

As edgy as Alexander Payne’s “Election” and often as funny as Amy Heckerling’s “Clueless,” Peyton Reed’s “Bring it On” is a big surprise – a teen-age flick worth getting excited about that will appeal to a broad audience.

As predictable as its story is, what matters here are the small details and the attention to character, which Reed and first-time screenwriter Jessica Bendinger consistently get right.

The film may initially feel like an attack on cheerleaders in its hilarious opening cheer, but it eventually steers clear of cheap condescension. It walks a tricky line. It bases its comedy on some of the vacuous, brain-dead stereotypes associated with cheerleading, but it nevertheless respects cheerleading as a challenging sport – and not simply pompom fluff for dummies.

The film features Kirsten Dunst in a terrific turn as Torrance Shipman, a plucky girl who’s the new captain of her high school’s award-winning cheerleading team. With nationals only weeks away, it’s up to her to whip her team into shape, a difficult task considering Torrance has just learned that in previous years, her team’s routines were stolen from the East Compton Clovers, an inner-city squad that warns Torrance to “bring it on” when they duke it out at the national convention.

The film’s premise is hardly new, but that doesn’t matter – it’s not dependent on its plot to make it work. Instead, the film leans hard on its snappy dialogue and likable cast, a lively bunch of young actors – Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Gabrielle Union and Jesse Bradford in particular – who infuse “Bring it On” with edge, wit and spunk.

Grade: B+

WOMAN ON TOP. 93 minutes, R, directed by Fina Torres, written by Vera Blasi.

There’s something about Penelope Cruz, the star of Fina Torres’ “Woman on Top,” that’s suggestive of something, well, overtly suggestive.

Whether holding a tomato near her breasts and saying “you need to make sure they’re full and plump,” or lifting a chili pepper to her nose and inhaling its aroma while she dreams of a man, there’s rarely a moment in “Woman” that she doesn’t smolder with sexuality. She’s like a young Sophia Loren crossed with the delicate features and vulnerability of Audrey Hepburn, and she’s perfect for this role.

Here, as Isabella, Cruz is a woman at once gifted and cursed by the gods. She’s an amazing chef who can whip up intoxicating Brazilian dishes, but she also suffers from a case of motion sickness that’s so dire, it hints in part at the film’s title. Isabella can’t have sex with her husband, Toninho (Murilo Benicio), without being on top.

That doesn’t suit Toninho, a man’s man who swears he loves Isabella, but who nevertheless is caught having an affair with the Brazilian sexpot who lives above them. Hurt and angry, Isabella relocates from Brazil to San Francisco, where she reunites with her best friend, Monica (Harold Perrineau Jr.), an outrageous drag queen, and eventually meets a television producer (Mark Feuerstein) who changes her life with a popular cooking show.

All of this is as light as the cream on one of Isabella’s pies, but it’s sweet and often endearing, a film that, much like the best scenes in “Chocolat,” “Babette’s Feast” and “Tom Jones,” strikes just the right balance between food, love and sex.

Grade: B+

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays in Style, Thursdays in the scene, Tuesdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5” and Thursdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5:30” on WLBZ-2 and WCSH-6.

The Video Corner

Renting a video? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores.

The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle D

Bless the Child D

Bring it On B+

Get Carter D-

Woman on Top B+

Whipped F-

Cecil B. Demented C

Dinosaur B

Dr. T and the Women D

The Eyes of Tammy Faye B+

Solomon and Gaenor B+

What Lies Beneath B

Bait F

Battlefield Earth F-

Coyote Ugly C-

Disney’s The Kid B+

Me, Myself & Irene C+

Autumn in New York F

Hollow Man C-

The Art of War F

The Exorcist: The Version You’ve Never Seen A

Godzilla 2000 B+

The Cell B

Road Trip D-

Saving Grace A-

Where the Money Is C+

The Virgin Suicides B+

Loser C-

The Road to El Dorado B-

Shower B+

Scary Movie B-

Shaft B+

Gone in 60 Seconds D

Groove B-

Trixie D+

The In Crowd F+

The Replacements D

Chicken Run A

Gladiator B-