Gifted is about a mathematically genius girl, Mary, who is living with Frank, both her uncle and guardian since Mary's mother committed suicide. Frank wants to raise Mary as normally as possible, choosing to send her to a public school instead of a private school specifically for gifted students. Wanting Mary to fully embrace and develop her abilities, Evelyn, who is Frank's mother and Mary's grandmother, shows up seeking custody of Mary. This results in a court case that threatens to tear Mary away from Frank and break their strong bond with each other.
Despite having a promising synopsis that intrigued me, I found Gifted to be a rather disappointing film. My biggest criticism is just how slow the pacing seemed. This movie is not very long, with a running time of just over an hour and a half, but somehow the plot seemed to drag. As the film progressed, the courtroom scenes especially were quite tedious and forgettable. I also was letdown by a lot of the relationships between some of the characters, specifically between Frank and Bonnie, Mary's teacher at school. Their interactions felt awkward, and the relationship between their characters felt like it didn't really belong in the film and was simply added to lend an extra element to the story. A third factor that didn't work for me was the cliched scenes of Mary "being brilliant." So many movies featuring an intelligent lead character include unnecessary scenes simply added to show just how smart the protagonist is, and Gifted completely falls into this trap. I understand the motivation behind wanting to show Mary's mathematical intellect, but it got old very quickly when I was reminded of it again and again throughout the film.
I can't say that Chris Evans' portrayal of Frank was particularly captivating, and although I enjoyed Octavia Spencer's character she probably had about five minutes of screen time. Truly the singular shining star of Gifted is Mckenna Grace, the actress who plays Mary. Even omitting her young age as a factor, she still managed to deliver a nuanced and believable performance that was a pleasure to watch.
My final stance on Gifted is that conceptually it was well thought out but the delivery fell very short of its potential. Because of this, the emotional connection to the characters that is needed to carry it as an engaging film is lost. If you are thinking about seeing Gifted, I would say that it is worth watching for Mckenna Grace's performance alone. However, as a whole this film is a mediocre blur that is likely to be forgotten as soon as viewers walk out of the theater.
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama
Run Time: 101 minutes
Release Date: April 7, 2017
My Rating: ★★☆☆☆
