Gifted is a 2017 American 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. At the 23rd Critics’ Choice Awards, Mckenna Grace was nominated for Best Young Actor/Actress. The film received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances of Evans and Grace, but noted its predictability.
In St. Petersburg, Florida, seven-year-old Mary Adler, a mathematical genius, lives with her uncle and de facto guardian, Frank. Her best friend is her 43-year-old neighbour, Roberta Taylor. Frank, a former Philosophy professor now boat mechanic, feels strongly that Mary, even despite her mathematical capabilities, should attend normal primary school so she can attain a “somewhat normal life.”
On her first day of first grade, she shows remarkable mathematical talent, which impresses her teacher, Bonnie Stevenson.
Bonnie confronts Frank about Mary’s mathematical prowess but Frank tries to pass it off as the Trachtenberg system until Bonnie tricks Mary into completing a college math test, and confronts Frank again. 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 dying by suicide when Mary was six months old. She has lived with Frank ever since.
Despite Mary’s initial disdain for average children her own age and her boredom with their classwork, Mary 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, something that Frank feels incredibly proud over. After the incident, the principal, having discovered Mary’s math talents, 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 she will not have a chance at a “normal” childhood.
The principal contacts Frank’s estranged mother and Mary’s maternal grandmother, Evelyn.
Evelyn, a former mathematician herself, is of the opinion that people with capabilities such as Mary’s have an obligation to use their talents to further help society, and therefore feels that Mary should be specially tutored in preparation for a life devoted to mathematics, much as Diane was. But Frank is adamant that his sister would want Mary to be in a normal public school and have the childhood she did not have. Evelyn later sues him for full custody.
In court, while on the stand, its revealed that Evelyn had kept Diane socially isolated, even home schooling her, so she could be primarily focused on mathematics. When Diane’s teenage boyfriend took her on a romantic getaway, Evelyn filed a lawsuit and pressed charges against him, forcing him to cut ties with Diane, causing her first suicide attempt — something Evelyn angrily argues “was nothing”.
When Frank takes the stand, he admits working a low-paying job without health insurance.
His lawyer, worried that the judge will side with Evelyn due to her have a better income, health plan and home, encourages Frank to consider taking a deal orchestrated by Evelyn’s lawyer.
Mary would be 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, he 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. He 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.
Frank goes to the foster home and, after making up with Mary, reveals to Evelyn that Diane had indeed completed the Navier-Stokes problem after all. But left instructions to Frank before she died to not publish the equation until after Evelyn’s death knowing that it meant everything to her to see Diane solve the problem. Frank offers Evelyn the opportunity to publish Diane’s work if she drops her custody case. 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.
In December 2014, Tom Flynn’s screenplay was one of the 70 to make that year’s Black List. In August 2015, it was announced Chris Evans had been cast in the film, with Marc Webb directing. In September 2015, Mckenna Grace, Octavia Spencer, Lindsay Duncan and Jenny Slate joined the cast, and in November 2015, Julie Ann Emery was also added.
Filming began in October 2015 in Savannah, Georgia, as well as in Tybee Island, Georgia, and finished in November 2015. Specific locations included May Howard Elementary School in Wilmington Island, Georgia and Emory University in Atlanta.
Although the film is set in St. Petersburg, Florida, screenwriter Tom Flynn was unable to convince the producers to film in Florida, because the state was no longer providing financial incentives to movie makers; that made Georgia a more financially viable option.
Mathematician Jordan Ellenberg, who was himself a child prodigy, was a mathematics consultant for the film; Webb contacted him after reading his article in The Wall Street Journal and asked him to share his experiences. Ellenberg also cameos as a professor lecturing on the partition function and Ramanujan’s congruences.
The film was scheduled to be released on April 12, 2017, but was pushed up to April 7, 2017.
Gifted grossed $24.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $18.2 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $43 million against a production budget of $7 million.
The film went wide on Wednesday, April 12, 2017, and in its opening weekend grossed $3.1 million, finishing 6th at the box office. In its second weekend of wide expansion, it added more screens, and made $4.6 million, an increase of 47.5% from the previous week.
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, Gifted has an approval rating of 73% based on 173 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The site’s critical consensus reads, “Gifted isn’t quite as bright as its pint-sized protagonist, but a charming cast wrings respectably engaging drama out of a fairly predictable premise.” On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews”. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “A” on an A+ to F scale.
Colin Covert of the Star Tribune gave the film 3/4 stars, saying, “Sure, it’s a simple, straightforward film, but sometimes that’s all you need as long as its heart is true.” On Evans’ performance, Owen Gleiberman of Variety said, “Chris Evans, abashed and rumpled, with a grease monkey’s can’t-be-bothered-to-shave beard, gives an engaged performance, exuding a homespun warmth we haven’t seen in the “Captain America” films.” Richard Roeper gave the film 4 out of 4 stars and said, “Gifted isn’t the best or most sophisticated or most original film of the year so far – but it just might be my favorite.”
