Gifted Information

Gifted is a 2017 American drama film directed by Marc Webb, written by Tom Flynn and stars Chris Evans, Mckenna Grace, Lindsay Duncan, Jenny Slate and Octavia Spencer. The plot follows an intellectually gifted 7-year-old who gets caught up in a custody battle between her uncle and grandmother. The film was released on April 7, 2017, by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Plot summary

In a small town in gulf-coast Florida, seven-year-old Mary shows remarkable mathematical talent on her first day of school. She is offered a scholarship to a private school for gifted children but her uncle turns it down. It emerges that Mary's mother had been a promising mathematician, dedicated to the Navier-Stokes problem (one of the unsolved Millennium Prize Problems) before committing suicide when Mary was six months old. Since then her uncle Frank has acted as Mary's de facto guardian. Believing that his sister would want Mary to experience a "normal" childhood, Frank is adamant that Mary be enrolled in regular public school. However, she somehow has already mastered advanced calculus before first grade. Frank's estranged mother (Mary's maternal-grandmother) seeks custody in the Florida courts, believing that Mary is a "one-in-a-billion" mathematical prodigy who should be specially tutored in preparation for a life devoted to mathematics. On advice from his lawyer Frank compromises by putting Mary in foster care near him with Mary going to private school. Frank later finds out that his mother is present at foster care home and overseeing Mary's education. To get Mary back he breaks a promise to his sister and gives the answer to the Navier-Stokes problem to his mother in exchange to care for Mary.

Cast

• Chris Evans as Frank Adler
• Mckenna Grace as Mary Adler
• Lindsay Duncan as Evelyn Adler
• Jenny Slate as Bonnie Stevenson
• Octavia Spencer as Roberta Taylor
• Julie Ann Emery as Pat Golding
• Jona Xiao as Lijuan
• Keir O'Donnell as Bradley Pollard

Production

In August 2015, it was announced Chris Evans had been cast in the film, with Marc Webb directing from a screenplay by Tom Flynn. In September 2015, Mckenna Grace, Octavia Spencer, Lindsay Duncan and Jenny Slate joined the cast of the film. In November 2015, Julie Ann Emery joined the cast of the film.

Filming began in October 2015 in Savannah, Georgia, as well as in Tybee Island, Georgia.

Release

The film was scheduled to be released on April 12, 2017, but was pushed up to April 7, 2017.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, Gifted has an approval rating of 65% based on 79 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. 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 score of 60 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".