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 but—by 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.
