Sunday, May 7, 2017

Gifted

DIRECTOR: Marc Webb  LEAD CAST: Chris Evans, Mckenna Grace, Lindsay Duncan, Jenny Slate, Octavia Spencer  SCREENWRITER: Tom Flynn  PRODUCER:  Andy Cohen, Karen Lunder  EDITOR:  Bill Pankow  MUSICAL DIRECTOR:  Rob Simonsen  GENRE: Drama  CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Stuart Dryburgh  DISTRIBUTOR: Warner Bros  LOCATION:  USA  RUNNING TIME:   101 minutes
Technical assessment:  3.5
Moral assessment:  3.5
CINEMA rating:  V13
MTRCB rating:  PG
On her first day of school, seven-year-old Mary (Mckenna Grace) is discovered to be a mathematical genius.  The school principal offers a full scholarship for Mary at a school for gifted children but her guardian and uncle, Frank Adler (Chris Evans), brother of Mary’s deceased mother, rejects it.  Frank insists he had promised his late sister Diane, Mary’s mother, that he would raise Mary as a normal child in due time, lest the child suffer a fate similar to her mother who was a mathematical prodigy herself but committed suicide when Mary was barely six months old.  One day Frank’s wealthy and estranged mother Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan) appears at the doorstep of Frank’s humble shack in Florida, claiming it would be best for Mary to live with her in Massachusetts where her genius may be best honed to prepare her for a life devoted to mathematics.  How will the court battle for custody between Mary’s uncle and her grandmother turn out?
Gifted exceeds expectations its trailers may have created.  For one, the actors really deliver:  Captain America is completely obliterated in the intensity of Evans’ performance as the devoted uncle Frank Adler.  As a seven-year-old Mary losing her milk teeth, Grace (who was actually 10-years-old during filming) is spot-on adorable and formidable when she has to be.  Duncan as a poised upper-crust Brit and yet a virtual stage grandma is at once convincing and pathetic.  Gifted would have easily slid into a soppy melodrama were it not for the insightful script which plays fair in peeling layers of desirable and undesirable traits of both Frank and Evelyn in their fight for custody—both mean well, but both are flawed, too.  When the dust settles, neither wins nor loses although justice is till served by the weight of a dead mother’s secret wish, and the desire of the daughter who never knew her.

In essence, Gifted presents two competing parenting philosophies and asks the viewer to ponder the responsibilities of both parents and society in so far as the nurture and upbringing of gifted children is concerned.  If we raised a gifted child as we would “any ordinary kid” we might be wasting her strengths otherwise useful to society; on the other hand if we focused on honing her gifts alone she might end up dehumanized, brilliant but emotionally robotic.  It is a complex question to answer butby gently zeroing in on tender and carefree moments between Frank and Mary—Gifted breathes compassion and human kindness into the issue, providing a satisfying and beautiful equation in the end.