Gifted Review – Spoiler Free
Gifted is a film which comes directed by Marc Webb who some may know for his work on The Amazing Spider-man (2012). The film stars Chris Evans, Mckenna Grace, Lindsay Duncan and Jenny Slate. Gifted follows the story of a young and talented girl who is gifted with the ability to complete mathamatic problems way beyond what’s normal for her age.
Gifted is one of those films that you really don’t get to see too often at the cinema these days. Much of the story is centered around a father and daughter relationship (although Frank who cares for young Mary isn’t her real father, it still follows the same idea). It also is based around the idea of a very gifted young individual who is capable of great things one day, but there are two sides of thought for how to raise her. Should she be pushed into studying to make the most of her abilities or should she forgo studying so hard so she can have a social life and friends?
It is the second point about the talented individual that I found very interesting in this film. It’s true that smart people can sometimes be pushed too hard in life and this can impact on their happiness, with too much study they can be isolated and this is shown a little in this film. Especially though the story of Mary’s real mother who was also a math genius.
This is a very, very emotional film and the story and character development is well told. It’s not long before you start to care for Mary and her family and I do feel for her when she goes through some fairly hard times during this film. The custody battle between Frank and Evelyn is rough, but was interesting to watch.
All the actors were great in this. This is I think my favourite Chris Evans film by far, he did a great job in this and I’m glad he chose to be part of this film because he was cast perfectly. I was also very impressed by young Mckenna Grace who played Mary. She is one of my favourite child actors at the moment after watching her in Gifted, I’m sure more great things are to come from her in the future.
Overall this a touching story about bringing up a gifted child in this modern world and also doing what’s right for their happiness, without pushing them too hard. It is actually a very emotoinal movie and did have a few people crying in the cinema I was at in certain sad points, but the film is also funny at times. Gifted is the type of film I would describe as a “nice movie”. I like the messaging, the story and the themes in this and it’s all so well done. It’s certainly worth going to see at the cinema, especially if you’re looking for something different to all those action blockbusters and thrillers out literally every week.
