Gifted (12A)
We’ve become more accustomed to seeing Chris Evans wield a shield taking out maniacal supervillains as part of Marvel’s Avengers than playing a mere mortal in the real world.
In fact, you have to go back seven years to find the 36-year-old’s last high profile, mainstream non-Captain America cinematic role – and even that was in another comic book-inspired outing, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
Drama Gifted marks a real change of pace, then, for the Boston-born star as he plays single man Frank, who is drawn into a bitter custody battle with his mum Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan) over his mathematical genius niece Mary (Mckenna Grace).
Despite a return to more grounded heroics, though, the comic connections still follow Evans around as Gifted is helmed by Marc Webb; the man who left Spider-Man in such a state with his two Amazing Spider-Man movies that Marvel had to secure joint rights to the webbed hero and reboot his cinematic story for a second time.
But although Webb got his fingers burned in the blockbuster world, lets not forget this was the man who helmed ace 2009 indie rom-com 500 Days of Summer.
He doesn’t quite reach those heights here, but moving back into lower budget territory seems to have re-energised the director and his latest flick survives the unwelcome comparisons to