Gifted is a 2017 American comedy-drama film directed by Marc Webb and written by Tom Flynn. It stars Chris Evans, Mckenna Grace, Lindsay Duncan, Jenny Slate and Octavia Spencer. The plot follows an intellectually gifted seven-year-old who becomes the subject of a custody battle between her maternal uncle and maternal grandmother. The film was released on April 7, 2017, by Fox Searchlight Pictures, and grossed $43 million worldwide.
Plot
In a small town in Pinellas County, Florida, seven-year-old Mary Adler lives with uncle and de facto guardian, Frank. Her best friend is her 43-year-old neighbor, Roberta. On her first day of first grade, she shows remarkable mathematical talent, which impresses her teacher, Bonnie Stevenson. There, despite her initial disdain for average children her own age and her boredom with their classwork, she begins to bond with them when she brings her one-eyed cat, Fred, for show-and-tell. Later, she defends a classmate from a bully on the school bus by hitting the bully in the face. After the incident, the principal encourages Frank to send Mary to a private school for gifted children, offering the opportunity of a scholarship. However, Frank turns it down. Based on his family’s experiences with similar schools, he fears Mary will not have a chance at a “normal” childhood.
It emerges that Mary’s mother, Diane, had been a promising mathematician, dedicated to the Navier–Stokes problem (one of the unsolved Millennium Prize Problems) before taking her own life when Mary was six months old. Mary has lived with Frank, a former college professor turned boat repairman, ever since.
The principal contacts Frank’s estranged mother and Mary’s maternal grandmother, Evelyn, who seeks to gain custody of Mary and move her to Massachusetts. Evelyn believes that Mary is a “one-in-a-billion” mathematical prodigy who should be specially tutored in preparation for a life devoted to mathematics, much as Diane was. However, Frank is adamant that his sister would want Mary to be in a normal public school and have the childhood she didn’t have. In court, Frank argues that Evelyn’s parenting deprived Diane of a normal life; Evelyn had sent away a boy Diane was in love with, which was when Diane first attempted suicide. Evelyn argues that Frank is in no position to be a guardian, working a low-paying job without health insurance. Worried that the judge will rule against him and he will lose Mary completely, Frank accepts a compromise brokered by his lawyer Greg Cullen that sees Mary placed in foster care and attend the private school where Evelyn wants to have her enrolled. The foster parents live 25 minutes from Frank’s home, Frank will be entitled to scheduled visits, and Mary will be able to decide where she wants to live after her 12th birthday.
Mary is devastated at being placed in foster care, and her foster father says she refuses to see Frank. When Bonnie sees a picture of Fred up for adoption, she alerts Frank. Frank retrieves the cat from the pound and, learning that Fred was brought in due to allergy issues, realizes that Evelyn, who is allergic to cats, is overseeing Mary’s education in the guest house of Mary’s foster home. He then reveals to Evelyn, who had been a mathematician herself, that Diane had solved the Navier–Stokes problem but stipulated that the solution was to be withheld until Evelyn’s death. Knowing that it meant everything to Evelyn to see Diane solve the problem, Frank offers Evelyn the opportunity to publish Diane’s work if she drops her objection to him having custody of Mary. Evelyn agrees.
The film ends with Mary back in the custody of Frank, returning to public school and socializing with children her age while taking college-level courses.
Cast
Chris Evans as Frank Adler, Mary’s uncle and Evelyn’s son
Mckenna Grace as Mary Adler, the ’gifted‘ niece of Frank, Diane’s daughter and Evelyn’s granddaughter
Lindsay Duncan as Evelyn Adler, Mary’s grandmother, Frank’s and Diane’s mother
Jenny Slate as Bonnie Stevenson, Mary’s teacher
Octavia Spencer as Roberta Taylor, Mary and Frank’s neighbor
Michael Kendall Kaplan as Justin Gilmore, Mary’s classmate
Glenn Plummer as Greg Cullen, Frank’s attorney
John Finn as Aubrey Highsmith, lawyer for Evelyn Adler in the case for custody of Mary
Elizabeth Marvel as Gloria Davis, the school principal and Bonnie’s boss
Jon Sklaroff as Seymour Shankland, the head of MIT’s math department
Jona Xiao as Lijuan, a background character in the university scene who critiques the professor’s equation
Julie Ann Emery as Pat Golding
Keir O’Donnell as Bradley Pollard
John M. Jackson as Edward Nichols, the judge of Mary’s custody trial
Jordan Ellenberg as Professor, whose course Mary attends at the end of the film
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.