'Gifted' A Review

Gifted is a drama about a young math prodigy Mary(Mckenna Grace) being raised by her uncle Frank(Chris Evans) in a small town outside Tampa, FL. After home schooling her for years Frank puts Mary into public school as a 1st grader knowing that she's is intellectually way advanced by in hopes she can make friends and have a real childhood. Mary's intellect comes to the attention of the principal who contacts estranged grandmother Evelyn(Lindsay Duncan) who comes to Florida and quickly initiates a custody battle.

Evans is good as the decent everyman with gravitas, nice to see him in normal clothes. Grace is precocious and emotional and has great chemistry with Evans. There's potential for more depth in both of their performances, its clear they have more to give but unfortunately doesn't allow them to. The ensemble has some incredible talent, not only Duncan by Octavia Spencer and Jenny Slate among other less recognizable names and all are interesting but are limited but what they can do by the somewhat by-the-numbers inside-the-lines narrative.

The film has moments of comedy but is ultimately unflinchingly sincere and that is its greatest asset however there is a lot of missed opportunities at emotional and human complexity. A lot of the plot points are predictable, the story black-and-white bludgeoning us with what to think about the action as opposed to creating compelling enough material that leads us where they want to go. Some of the legal conflicts that propel a good portion of the plot are especially improbable, the grandmother and biological father never having seen the child making some kind of case for custody given they're only evidence seems to be "he's not rich". Although some of the court machinations drag the story is still compelling.

Affecting if somewhat blatant, unsubtle.

Rent It.