SECOND SCREEN
Gifted (12A) HHHH is one of those rare films with a screenplay that’s been polished till it shines. We all know that people don’t talk like this in real life but thankfully it has a top-notch cast who, for a thoroughly entertaining 100 minutes, delightfully convince us that they do.
Chris Evans plays Frank, who is raising a spirited seven-year-old, Mary, all alone in Florida. But Frank is not a single parent; he’s actually Mary’s uncle, who became her guardian when his sister – a brilliant mathematician – committed suicide.
But Mary, played astonishingly well by ten-year-old Mckenna Grace, has inherited her mother’s mathematical talent. She’s a child prodigy, which causes all sorts of trouble for Frank and his plan to carry out his sister’s wishes and raise her as a normal child. Real mathematicians may quibble with some of the detail, I expect, but the rest of us can enjoy a slightly contrived-feeling story redeemed by some wonderful acting. After a clumsy start, animated film
Rock Dog (PG) HHH becomes a lot of fun, largely thanks to a great voice performance from Eddie Izzard as a fading rock star. The plot follows Bodi (Luke Wilson), a teenage mastiff who wants to be a rock star.
After a painful opening halfhour, he’s off to the Big City to find Angus Scattergood (Izzard), who he’s naively confident will give him a helping paw. From here on it’s rather good – canine kung-fu and all.
What Asif Kapadia’s Amy did for the tragic story of Amy Winehouse, now Nick Broomfield and Rudi Dolezal’s Whitney:
Can I Be Me (15) HHH does for Whitney Houston, who was found dead in a hotel bathroom in 2012. She was 48.
The stories are so similar – drug abuse, ill-fated marriages – that comparisons are inevitable, and if the Whitney one falls short, it’s because the makers never gained real access to Robyn Crawford, Houston’s best friend and alleged lesbian lover. Was she her greatest love of all?