Gifted (2017 film)

Gifted
File:Gifted film poster.jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Marc Webb
Written by	Tom Flynn
Produced by	Karen Lunder Andy Cohen
Starring	Chris Evans Mckenna Grace Lindsay Duncan Jenny Slate Octavia Spencer
Cinematography	Stuart Dryburgh
Edited by	Bill Pankow
Music by	Rob Simonsen
Production companies	FilmNation Entertainment Grade A Entertainment DayDay Films
Distributed by	Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release date	April 7, 2017 (2017-04-07) (United States)
Language	English
Budget	$7 million
Box office	$12.7 million

Gifted is a 2017 American drama film directed by Marc Webb and written by Tom Flynn. It stars Chris Evans, Mckenna Grace, Lindsay Duncan, Jenny Slate and Octavia Spencer. The plot follows an intellectually gifted 7-year-old who gets caught up in a custody battle between her uncle and grandmother. The film was released on April 7, 2017, by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Plot

In a small town near Tampa, seven-year-old Mary Adler shows remarkable mathematical talent on her first day of first grade. She has already mastered advanced calculus, which impresses her teacher, Bonnie Stevenson. Mary is offered a scholarship to a private school for gifted children. However, her uncle and de facto guardian, Frank, turns it down. Based on his family's experiences with similar schools, he fears Mary will not have a chance at a "normal" childhood.

It emerges that Mary's mother, Diane had been a promising mathematician, dedicated to the Navier–Stokes problem (one of the unsolved Millennium Prize Problems) before committing suicide when Mary was six months old. Mary has lived with Frank ever since.

Frank's estranged mother and Mary's maternal-grandmother, Evelyn, seeks to gain custody of Mary and move her to Massachusetts, believing that Mary is a "one-in-a-billion" mathematical prodigy who should be specially tutored in preparation for a life devoted to mathematics. However, Frank is adamant that his sister would want Mary to be in a normal public school and have the childhood she didn't have. Worried that the judge will rule against him and he will lose Mary completely, Frank accepts a compromise brokered by his lawyer, Greg Cullen, that sees Mary placed in foster care and attend the private school where Evelyn wanted to have her enrolled. The foster parents live just 25 minutes from Frank's home, and Mary will be able to decide where she wants to live after her 12th birthday.

Mary is devastated at being placed in foster care. Frank later finds out that Evelyn is overseeing Mary's education and has taken up residence in the guest house of Mary's foster home. He then reveals to Evelyn that Diane had solved the Navier-Stokes problem, but stipulated that the solution was to be withheld until Evelyn's death. Knowing that it meant everything to Evelyn to see Diane solve the problem, Frank offers to publish Diane's work if she drops her objection to him having custody of Mary. Evelyn reluctantly agrees.

The film ends with Mary returning to public school, while taking college-level courses in the afternoon.

Cast

• Chris Evans as Frank Adler, the uncle of Mary Adler.
• Mckenna Grace as Mary Adler, a child prodigy.
• Lindsay Duncan as Evelyn Adler, the mother of Frank and the grandmother of Mary.
• Jenny Slate as Bonnie Stevenson, Mary's teacher, Frank's later girlfriend
• Octavia Spencer as Roberta Taylor, Frank and Mary's landlady and family friend who doubles as Mary's part-time caregiver.
• Glenn Plummer as Greg Cullen, Frank's lawyer.
• Julie Ann Emery as Pat Golding
• Jona Xiao as Lijuan
• Keir O'Donnell as Bradley Pollard

Production

In August 2015, it was announced Chris Evans had been cast in the film, with Marc Webb directing from a screenplay by Tom Flynn. In September 2015, Mckenna Grace, Octavia Spencer, Lindsay Duncan and Jenny Slate joined the cast of the film. In November 2015, Julie Ann Emery joined the cast of the film.

Filming began in October 2015 in Savannah, Georgia, as well as in Tybee Island, Georgia.

Release

The film was scheduled to be released on April 12, 2017, but was pushed up to April 7, 2017.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, Gifted has an approval rating of 64% based on 89 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Gifted isn't quite as bright as its pint-sized protagonist, but a charming cast wrings respectably engaging drama out of a fairly predictable premise." On Metacritic the film has a score of 60 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Film critic Steve Pulaski of Influx Magazine gave the film a B-, saying, "Gifted still commits that cardinal sin of letting the score do too much of the emotional heavy-lifting, but around that it functions impressively." He added that the film was more comparable to Webb's earlier films.

External links

• Official website
• Gifted Movie on Twitter
• Gifted at IMDb
• Gifted at Metacritic
• Gifted at Rotten Tomatoes