Gifted (PG) 2017

Frank Adler (Chris Evans) is a single man raising a child prodigy - his spirited young niece Mary (Mckenna Grace) - in a coastal town in Florida. Frank's plans for a normal school life for Mary are foiled when the 7-year-old's mathematical abilities come to the attention of Frank's formidable mother, Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan), whose plans for her granddaughter threaten to separate Frank and Mary. -WWW

Release date: April 7, 2017 (USA)

Directed by: Marc Webb

Written by: Tom Flynn 

Production company: FilmNation Entertainment

Music composed by: Rob Simonsen

Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Commercenter Cinema 1

 Kids should be kids no matter how smart they are.  They should be allowed to play, have friends their age et cetera.  But they should not be deprived of enriching their knowledge and honing their crafts.

Stories like this one are really close to my heart.  In a world full of graft, corruption and all those mundane inanities, seeing an uncle caring for a female child like his own, protecting her and putting her best interests to heart melts my heart.  True, he is not perfect and there are questions he could not answer, Frank is still a very good father figure to the little girl named Mary.  Sigh...

Add to that the fact that the little girl is Mensa qualified and solves mathematical problems like they were always there inside her memory bank...yes, I love stories like that.

The story is very moving.  All he wanted to do was grant his sister's dying wish not to take away her childhood, but by doing so, he seemingly did not allow her to reach her full capacity, which bothered the principal of the school he enrolled her to, making grandma meddle into their affairs. 

There were similar stories in the past, but this one has its uniqueness.  What?  You have to watch the movie to find out or read the book(or do both).

Chris Evans has good onscreen chemistry with McKenna Grace.  They seemed like real family.  I also think that this is Mr. Evans' best movie ever, acting wise.  Plus, he is ruggedly handsome here.  Although I like him in Captain America/Avengers, he looks more human and manly here.

McKenna Grace is a genius in her own right.  She is very articulate and she talks like an adult.  I think she was eight or nine when this was being filmed or proba  You should read and watch interviews involving her and you would see that the answers weren't scripted because other questions were just asked out of the blue or something.

Jenny Slate, who was Chris Evans' girlfriend during filming(they broke up during the second month of the first quarter of this year), was both edgy and comfortable.  I don't say edgy like it's a bad thing.  Of course, she should be edgy.  She's the child's teacher for heaven's sake. :-)

Lindsay Duncan is beautiful and commanding.  She's perfect for the role.

Octavia Spencer is loving and spunky as Roberta.  Roberta may have a different race and she may not be related by blood, but she's definitely family and it showed in Octavia Spencer's acting(or non-acting) and their love for her.

The kids did well and so did the rest of the cast.  I'm not a cat person, but I like the one-eyed-Fred.  I also wondered where they got him.  I'm sure they did not pull his eye to... Yes, they wouldn't do that or else P.A.W.S. or A.S.P.C.A. would never let them see the light of day ever again, so to speak.

Marc Webb, you did it again.  I loved 500 Days of Summer.  I love GIFTED even more. All the best!

FOR THE TECHINICAL ASPECTS ETC. I CHOSE THESE FIVE REVIEWS(You might argue that they missed some "facts" of the story, but hey, we all make mistakes. These are great reviews, I must say.  I don't agree with everything they said, but they are fair.) :

ROGER EBERT'S GROUP

CHRIS EVANS GIVES SUPERHERO A NEW MEANING

GIFTED FAMILY DRAMA HAS BOTH A HEART AND A BRAIN

DR. DONNA'S MOVIE REVIEWS: GIFTED


‘Gifted’ Producer on Encouraging Women to Pursue STEM Careers


Super useless info:

I too am a proud owner of a Rose Gold MacBook Pro with Retina Display featured in this film.  ;-)