Movie Review: Gifted

Movie Review: Gifted

I had been looking forward to seeing Gifted, since I had been hearing great reviews, and I was not disappointed - with an excellent cast and an interesting plot, the movie is very good.

Mary Adler (Mckenna Grace) lives with her uncle, Frank (Chris Evans), in a small apartment in Florida. She's best friends with her neighbor, Roberta (Octavia Spencer), and at 6 1/2 years old, she will be attending school for the first time. However, when she gets there, she finds herself quite bored - because Mary is a gifted child, especially in mathematics, and the other first graders are learning how to do simple problems like 2+2. Mary's teacher, Bonnie (Jenny Slate), immediately realizes this, and speaks to Frank about it; what she doesn't know, however, is that Mary's mother died when she was a baby, and Frank, as her uncle, has been her caretaker since then.

Frank also hasn't been in touch with his mother, Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan), since she turned her back on Mary's mother when she got pregnant, but all of a sudden, Evelyn resurfaces: and she wants custody of Mary, whom she had not even met until now.

The acting in this movie was very good, especially by Mckenna Grace, as Mary - Mckenna is only 11 years old, although she is playing a 6.5 year old girl in the film. Funny story: I attended a taping of Fuller House in L.A. in August 2016, and Mckenna was actually in that episode, so I immediately recognized her when I started seeing trailers for Gifted; she was good in Fuller House as well. Chris Evans is great here as well, as are Octavia Spencer and Jenny Slate, although I wish that Spencer and Slate had larger roles in the movie - their talent is mostly underused here.

Yes, definitely see this movie, and bring the Kleenex too - there's one or two scenes where you'll need it. I'm curious to see what other projects Mckenna Grace takes on after this movie, which is sure to put her name on the map in Hollywood, if it wasn't there already. I haven't seen a really good film in a long time, and this one kept my attention throughout its 1 hour and 40 minute runtime - I only checked my watch maybe once, just to see what time it was. I highly recommend Gifted for all ages, and hopefully it will do well at the box office.

Gifted is in theaters today, April 12th, and is rated PG-13 with a runtime of 101 minutes. 4.5 stars out of 5.

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