Movie Review – Gifted

Grade – A

RunPee Mom starts: Gifted unfolds beautifully, and just keeps getting better. The cast was excellent, and the chemistry between the main characters was palpable. There were tender moments and humorous moments. This is a great movie for audiences of all ages.

Jill, RunPee Co-Creator adds: This is the second movie this year where Octavia Spencer appears in an movie about mathematical genius – someone’s developing a niche? LOL. Her role was pretty basic in *Gifted*, but she interacted very well with the titular genius child…we could believe she was the little girl’s best friend, odd as it may sound to someone used to more typical children.

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And speaking of Mary (Mckenna Grace) – the child actor is wonderful. What a fresh new talent: in every scene on screen she simply shone. She had moments charming childish glee/anger, mixed with a plethora of precocious adult mannerisms. She was completely believable in the role, easily upstaging every adult. In fact, the moments she didn’t appear were only the scenes the movie lagged (mainly every courtroom segment – we’ve seen all that before, and those acts felt like they were simply going through the motions). I loved the scene where Mary beat up on much older child to defend a young boy – and where she really pulled through for him a little later – that was quite heartwarming. We come to see there is a fantastic child in there, nearly buried under quantum mechanics and unsolvable math equations.

Chris Evans turned in a good performance – nothing amazing – but definitely more challenging a role than anything Captain America ever asked of him. 🙂 I think he can be proud to put this film on his filmography. Here’s to hoping he can continue to grow his acting talents to meatier (but less beefcake, enjoyable as those are) roles.

Is this movie sad? I’d say there are some scenes that are tough to watch, probably especially for parents. No one enjoys watching adults rip a child’s life apart in the name of “what’s best for them.” What ultimately occurs is kind of confusing, legally, but without giving anything away, this is not a tear-jerker. (There were two moments I choked up, and one of them was about a cat.) 🙂

I recommend this film, but waiting for the DVD wouldn’t take anything away from the experience.