Gifted (Movie Review)

The 1-4-0: In #Gifted, Captain America’s Chris Evans shows us he can be a domestic dad figure whilst fighting for what is right. Tissues are a must for this feel trip.

The Gist:

Frank Adler (Chris Evans) is a single, boat repairman raising his math prodigy niece, Mary Adler (McKenna Grace). Frank wants a normal life for Mary, he truly believes that his late sister would have wanted Mary to have a normal school life, filled with kids her age, to be out and about doing normal things— not for her to be cooped up inside doing long math equations all day long. His plans come crumbling down when he finds himself in the middle of a messy, custody battle with his rich and haughty mother, Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan) who wants full custody of Mary, claiming that Frank is suppressing Mary’s talent and deserves only the very best such as around the clock tutors and prep school for gifted children such as Mary.

What Works:

It was refreshing to see Chris Evans sans the Captain America shield and taking on a more domestic, relatable role. What really sells this film was his chemistry with McKenna Grace. They play the uncle-niece dynamic perfectly. Gifted is able to tap into the emotional spectrum of its audience by letting them take sides. As a viewer, this could get you excited one moment, and then break your heart the next.

Gifted will enamor you with its heart-wrenching quotes – “What’s your biggest fear? That I’d ruin Mary’s life?” and beautiful scenery such as the scene where Frank and Mary were bonding as the sun went down providing breathtaking silhouettes of the two as the sun bathed everything with deep hues of crimson and gold.

What Doesn’t Work:

Gifted’s classroom scenes were meant to show just how Mary has trouble fitting in with her classmates and how socially awkward she is, but they were rushed and failed to portray the depth they were meant to. The witty exchanges between Mary and her first-grade teacher, Bonnie (Jenny Slate), kept those scenes afloat. The on-screen romance and chemistry between Evans and Slate are great, but it’s rushed at times. Halfway through the movie, you’ll soon forget that they’re romantically involved until she randomly appears in a scene.

The word spread quickly among their friends and family that they had lost someone so important to all of them. The film really manages to capture the depth of Roberta’s sister’s death. The lack of Octavia Spencer’s screen time was a big turn-off. Any scene that she was in was great, but she didn’t have much or much dialogue for that matter.  The audience wanted to see more of how Roberta and Mary interacted. The scenes that showed them interacting were not enough.

Pay or Nay:

I say pay. From the beautiful heartfelt scenes, and the witty one-liners, you won’t leave the cinema disappointed or dry-eyed. Gifted is a drama with a happy ending and a loveable and quirky one-eyed cat. What’s not to love about that?