GIFTED review by Ronnie Malik – Chris Evans attempts to raise a brilliant young girl

GIFTED review by Ronnie Malik – Chris Evans attempts to raise a brilliant young girl

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Director: Marc Webb

Cast : Chris Evans, Mckenna Grace, Lindsay Duncan, Jenny Slate, Octavia Spencer, Glenn Plummer, John Finn, Elizabeth Marvel

Rating: B

Gifted is a heartwarming and often funny film depicting a family’s tug of war that leads to a custody battle and some courtroom drama with adults attempting to figure out the best way to raise an especially talented child. With emotional performances from its cast, this production will manage to pull at heartstrings and give you a smile as love prevails over conflict.

Frank Adler (Chris Evans), a husky handsome former professor that now has taken on the business of being a boat repairman, lives in Florida with his adorable 7-year-old niece Mary (McKenna Grace). Frank has been home-schooling Mary but decides that it is time for her to go to a regular school, make friends, and learn in a more social environment so that she can live a normal life.  Not too happy about having to leave her nest, Mary reluctantly goes to school.  Her teacher Bonnie (Jenny Slate) quickly discovers that this new student is a child prodigy. The elementary school instructor also learns that Mary’s mother was Frank’s sister and he took over guardianship of his niece after his sister, a brilliant mathematician, killed herself.

Bonnie, along with the school principal played by Elizabeth Marvel, tries to convince Frank to send Mary away to a school for the gifted.  The educators are convinced that there is no way they can accommodate a child as advanced as Mary but Frank insists that his niece stay enrolled in a “regular school” regardless. His fear is that if Mary is treated differently or made aware that she is not like other children that she will be emotionally scared and isolated. As things seem to be settling down, news of Mary reaches her estranged grandmother, Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan), a wealthy stiff upper-lipped English woman with an entirely different idea of how her granddaughter should be raised. Evelyn swoops into town to convince Frank that she should take Mary back to Boston to live with her. Mother and son find themselves at odds and one argument after another lands them in court for a nasty custody battle.

The actors in Gifted are able to bring to life the emotional turmoil a family faces during a time of crisis and disagreement. Chris Evans sheds his superhero image and is surprisingly tender as the father figure looking out for the young girl he loves as his own. Lindsay Duncan gives a great performance as the parent that lost her relationship with her daughter and is now hoping for a second chance with her granddaughter. Duncan has a stand out moment in the courtroom scene as she gives her harsh reviling testimony.  Oscar winner Octavia Spencer gives a nice reading in playing Roberta, a concerned neighbor with a heart of gold trying to guide Frank on the right way to raise a little girl. The adult cast gets upstaged by adorable McKenna Grace, with her wide eyes and toothless smile stealing the show with her childish antics, and she shines when her character has an emotional meltdown while faced with moving into a foster home. This little gal has some acting chops at 10-years-old and it will be so much fun for moviegoers to watch her as she grows into an adult actress. There is also a four-legged furry cast member that proves to be very entertaining – a one eyed cat named Fred.

Gifted has all the elements to be a very good tearjerker but the movie starts to become very predictable and a bit far-fetched. We never know why Mary’s mother commits suicide, there is no real build up to the first courtroom scene that sort of just happens, the explanations of what to do about Mary seem too simplistic, and a grandmother, daughter and granddaughter all being brilliant mathematicians seems very contrived. Although this is a movie about a child prodigy it just seems a bit implausible that a home-schooled kid this age knows math beyond her years. It also makes no sense why Frank, a professor by profession, would switch to repairing boats, have little to no money, and no health insurance knowing full well he responsible for a child. Perhaps the filmmakers were just trying to make him look like the underdog up against a dominating imposing mother. Gifted is filled with many funny and tender moments but winds up being more like a formula that is supposed to equal a tearjerker but never quite adds up.

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