![]() ![]() The cinematography is beautiful, if sometimes a little self-indulgent. Ditto to people laughing at it.ĭespite having many flaws, I still think that Gifted is worth seeing. I’m disappointed, but not entirely surprised, that the line made it past a first draft. Out of any other character’s mouth it would have been unacceptable, but because no one had to think about how white the screenwriter was when Spencer spoke, the joke worked. Taylor criticizes Adler for hiring a black lawyer, a comment that is jarring, super racist, and was a very successful laugh line in the theater where I saw the film. The Adler’s neighbor Roberta Taylor ( Octavia Spencer) is yet another iteration of the mammy trope, which needs to be retired. There are some weird racial undertones throughout the film. Mckenna Grace can cry like nobody’s business, Jenny Slate (you might recognize her as “Mona Lisa” from Parks and Rec) is surprisingly good as the first grade teacher all of us wanted, Octavia Spencer is unsurprisingly flawless, and Lindsay Duncan wrangles a supporting role so handily that she makes the entire movie about her. Luckily, he is always acting opposite incredibly gifted performers. Kids would love her.Ĭhris Evans was really the only weak member of the cast: he is a beautiful human, but he struggles to emote, and a lot of his dialogue felt wooden and unnatural. Why the studios didn’t fight for a PG rating is completely beyond me. Parents who probably would have otherwise brought their children to see the movie, which is an inspirational story featuring Mary Adler ( Mckenna Grace) a relatable little girl who is the full package: she’s a genius, a hero, and obsessed with her cat. I know it’s cute when kids swear and I get that Hollywood thinks that attractive people making out will always make them more money, but the consequential PG-13 rating was a poor trade off. This was presumably to give the movie its PG-13 rating, which is one of the largest mistake that the movie makes. His character should have been left there, as the perfect single-father, but it is Chris Evans, so he’s also suave, gorgeous, and handily achieves a Love Interest. Frank Adler, played oh so stoically by Chris Evans, is hard-working, funny, intelligent, empathetic, and possesses an enviable moral compass. Of course, that one male character is a doozy. He also does everything that he can to make a story that is very obviously about two women and a girl instead about the one man they all share. He makes a few stereotypically male slip ups in his storytelling: calling a strong female character “bossy”, making off-color comments about mistresses, and taking a mildly unsavory stance on consent. That said, I might be giving Tom Flynn too much credit. The story is partly a painful parable about living vicariously through one’s children and partly a nod to the long-lived, ever-changing battle women have fought for their place in STEM fields. The meat of the story is in the grandmother’s zeal for her daughter’s success and then her granddaughter’s promise. Superficially, Gifted is about a young man who is the sole custodian of his sister’s daughter until it becomes apparent that the little girl might be a genius and his mother sues for custody. But if you were paying even a moderate amount of attention, you should know better. I mean, if you fell asleep for part of the movie, you could be forgiven for thinking such a thing. No, sweet idiot, it did not have a simple plot. I walked out of Gifted loudly bemoaning Chris Evans’ lack of acting skills when I heard a man behind me say something even more controversial: that Gifted suffers from a “simple plot”. Written By: Chris Evans, Mckenna Grace, Octavia Spencer, Jenny Slate, Lindsay Duncan
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