FAMILY DRAMA PACKS A PUNCH
GIFTED
A PRECOCIOUS six-year-old girl with a beautiful mind is the glittering prize of an acrimonious custody battle in Marc Webb’s deeply moving drama. Penned in broad strokes by screenwriter Tom Flynn, Gifted overcomes a formulaic structure to deliver hefty emotional wallops, and provides leading man Chris Evans, best known as the shield-throwing Captain America, with a meaty dramatic role to test his acting mettle. Webb’s film is laden with delightful surprises, including a stellar performance from 10-year-old Mckenna Grace in the pivotal role of a quick-witted mathematical prodigy. On-screen rapport between Evans and Grace has the ease and familiarity of family, and when the floodgates open in the film’s second half, both actors let the tears flow naturally and break our hearts in the process.
Admittedly, Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer is poorly served in a perfunctory supporting role and a subplot involving a one-eyed pet cat veers close to mawkishness.
Thankfully, director Webb avoids each potentially fatal pitfall without sacrificing compassion for his flawed characters.
Florida boat repairman Frank Adler (Evans) home schools his niece Mary (Grace), who inherited her passion for algebra from her late mother.
Frank feeds her hunger for knowledge but jealously guards Mary’s playtime. He wants her to have an upbringing, full of laughter.
Against the advice of neighbour Roberta (Spencer), Frank enrols Mary in first grade at the local school, where she dazzles her teacher Bonnie (Jenny Slate) by performing complex multiplications in her head.
The school principal (Elizabeth Marvel) takes an active interest and is dumbfounded when Frank refuses a full scholarship for Mary to a nearby school for gifted children.
“Never get on the bad side of small-minded people with a little authority,” warns Roberta.
Soon after, Mary’s maternal grandmother Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan) arrives in Florida to stake a claim for the child in the court of Judge Edward Nichols (John M Jackson).
While Frank and Evelyn trade verbal blows through their lawyers, Mary makes clear her devotion to Frank: “He wanted me before he knew I was smart”.
Gifted is a heartfelt ode to sacrifice that succeeds despite its occasional reliance on cliches. DAMON SMITH