Gifted

Image Source: IMDB.com

During my vacation, I ended up at the movie theater (as one does).  I found myself settled in nicely to see the movie Gifted starring Chris Evans and Jenny Slate.  Going in to this movie I knew exactly two things about it:


Chris Evans is taking care of a gifted child and someone is going to try and take that child away.


And


Chris Evans and Jenny Slate dated briefly because of meeting on this movie.


I was unprepared for this movie.  It follows Frank (Evans) as he tries to care for his sister's child after she commits suicide.  The child Mary, is exceptionally gifted like her mother was.  In attempting to give Mary a normal life, Frank enrolls her in public school where things quickly escalate.  The principal ends up calling Frank's mother who is generally a wretched human being.


His mother pushes for custody of Mary and things disintegrate from there.


Both Evans and Slate are ridiculously charming both in scenes together and individually.  The characters feel true to life and the dialogue matches.  The actress playing Mary was as precocious as she needed to be to do the work.  She was silly and serious and it was a well balanced performance. 


There were plenty of tears and more laughs than I expected.  I would say that my two favorite scenes in the movie are during the sunset and at the hospital when Frank is teaching Mary about what parental joy and love looks like.  When you watch this movie, what you're getting is a love story and it's nice to see Evans outside of the Captain America suit and flexing his acting muscles (pun intended).


If you're looking for a movie about loss and love, this would be a good bet.

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