Gifted Review
After the Amazing Spider-Man (2012-2014) series, director Marc Webb makes his return to the directing chair with Gifted, and I’m just gonna start by saying I really liked this movie, even though I knew it was at times a little sappy, over-emotional, and played the emotions of the audience like a well-tuned piano. Sure, there are a couple of points I didn’t enjoy, but overall this is one of the better family dramas released so far this year.
The film focuses on Frank Adler, played by Chris Evans, and his niece Mary, whom he is raising. They live in Florida, and Mary’s mother, who committed suicide a number of years ago, was a mathematical genius, and through Frank’s home-schooling, Mary’s math talents didn’t fall far from the tree. Frank repeatedly says that it was Diane, Mary’s mother, who had the idea of putting Mary in elementary school, and despite offers to put Mary in a gifted school, Frank refuses. Then everything changes when the bitch who is Frank’s mother, and Mary’s grandmother, is back in Florida, saying that Frank’s caring for Mary is illegal and that she will raise the child herself in New York with some of the finest mathematicians in the world. So as court battles begin, Frank has to decide whether raising Mary in the way Diane wanted and keeping her away from her grandmother is the right thing to do, or if trying to stomp out her talent by keeping her in regular school is hurting the child’s intellectual opportunities.
Some of the biggest strengths of the film are the performances. While I’ve always enjoyed Chris Evans as Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this is easily the biggest impression he’s given me yet as an actor. He does a great job as Frank, both with being at times a smart-ass uncle and as the emotional anchor for the movie. Young Mckenna Grace plays Mary, and she does a phenomenal job. She plays Mary with a full sense of youth, but at the same time conveys a confidence and intelligence far beyond her years. Hopefully she gets more great roles in the future and she’ll continue strong work like this. Lindsey Duncan plays the grandmother character, Evelyn, and she gets the right amount of icy coldness that her character conveys to the different characters and also lights the flame of caring and warmth that grandmothers convey. Octavia Spencer also gets a few nice moments as Frank and Mary’s neighbor, and Jenny Slate, whose character I’ll get to in a minute in the negatives, but she does what she can with the material she’s given. The script, written by Tom Flynn, at times has some sharp dialogue and with Webb’s direction, the film flows back and forth pretty well between some darker dramatic elements and the lighthearted tones of comedy. I never felt like it became a miserable experience with the drama and it never got to a point where I could no longer take it seriously when the comedy came back. Also there are a couple of nice moments toward the end that steer away from the otherwise predictable third act. Sure, the ending is what I thought would happen and the emotional elements sometimes do come across as overbearing, but there’s a couple of nice touches that distinguish the film from other stories like this one.
Now for a couple of complaints. Well, I think I alluded to it earlier, but yeah, you can see how the film is going to end coming from a mile and a half away. Sure, the trailers helped out a lot with that, but almost every movie like this tends to do that. Now for Jenny Slate’s character, Mary’s first-grade teacher, well, she serves her purpose in the first act of the film in that role, but then becomes a love-interest for Frank, and while eventually there’s a few scenes where the ending can’t happen without her involvement, it just felt super tacked on to me. Also there’s maybe one or two too many scenes showing Mary in tears or extreme joy that felt over-cooked. In particular, there’s a scene where everybody’s bummed out because of the court case, so Frank takes Mary to the hospital to watch a family react to hearing the news that a baby has been born in the family. The scene lasts for about six minutes or so, and after the first four minutes, I got it. But we have to see the whole scenario play out twice. Then we see Mary encourage Frank to celebrate with the second family, and the whole scene drags on and is a case where Webb and Flynn over-do it with the sentiment.
So yeah, overall I really enjoyed the film, though. Sure, the sentimental moments are overbearing at times and while the film only runs at 100 minutes, there’s a couple of spots that drag or that could have been cut down a bit, but the strong performances, smart writing, and direction overcome those flaws to create a nice family viewing experience. I will warn audiences, though, there is a bit of strong language toward the end and some darker elements here and there like suicide and leaving your family behind, so if you do take younger children to the film, you might have to cover their ears at times or just take them out of the theater if they’re not comfortable. Otherwise, this is one that will probably hit with everybody. While the film doesn’t have the IQ of its main character, it has enough smarts to provide solid entertainment.
My rating: 8/10.
