Plot
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 neighbor, Roberta Taylor. Frank, a former philosophy professor now boat mechanic, feels strongly that Mary should attend a normal elementary school so she can have a normal childhood.
On her first day of first grade, she shows remarkable mathematical talent, which impresses her teacher, Bonnie Stevenson. Bonnie tries to ask Frank about it but he 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 committing suicide when Mary was six months old. Mary has lived with Frank ever since.
Despite Mary’s 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, something that Frank is not concerned about. After the incident, the principal, having discovered Mary’s math talent, 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.
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 school and have the childhood she did not have. Evelyn later sues him for full custody.
While she is on the stand in court, it is revealed that not only did Evelyn homeschool Diane, she kept her socially isolated, so that she could be completeley focused on mathematics. When Diane and her teenage boyfriend ran away to a ski resort, Evelyn filed a lawsuit and threatened to charge him with kidnapping, forcing him to cut ties with Diane. She attempted suicide for the first time shortly after, something Evelyn argues was an isolated incident.
When Frank takes the stand, he admits working at a low-paying job without health insurance. His lawyer, worried that the judge will side with Evelyn due to her having 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 Evelyn wants to have her enrolled in. 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 refuses to see Frank when he tries to visit. When Bonnie sees a picture of Fred up for adoption, she alerts Frank. He retrieves the cat from the pound moments before he is about to be put down and learns that Fred was brought in due to allergy issues. Frank 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 reconciling with Mary, reveals to Evelyn that Diane had indeed completed the Navier–Stokes Problem, but left instructions for Frank not to publish the equation until after Evelyn’s death, revealing Diane's deep resentment towards her mother. Knowing that it meant everything for her to see Diane solve the problem, Frank offers Evelyn the opportunity to publish Diane's work if she drops her custody case, to which she agrees. Mary is placed back in the custody of Frank, returning to public school and socializing with children her age while taking college-level courses.
Production
In December 2014, Tom Flynn's screenplay was one of the 70 to make that year's Black List. [2] In August 2015, it was announced Chris Evans had been cast in the film, with Marc Webb directing. [3] In September 2015, Mckenna Grace, Octavia Spencer, Lindsay Duncan and Jenny Slate joined the cast, [4] [5] and in November 2015, Julie Ann Emery was also added. [6]
Filming began in October 2015 in Savannah, Georgia, as well as in Tybee Island, Georgia, [7] and finished in November 2015. Specific locations included May Howard Elementary School in Wilmington Island, Georgia and Emory University in Atlanta. [8]
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. [9]
Mathematician Jordan Ellenberg, who was himself a child prodigy, was a mathematics consultant for the film; [10] Webb contacted him after reading his article [11] in The Wall Street Journal and asked him to share his experiences. [12] Ellenberg also cameos as a professor lecturing on the partition function and Ramanujan's congruences. [12]
Reception
Box office
Gifted grossed $24.8 million domestically (United States and Canada), and $18.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $43.1 million, against a budget of $7.0 million. [14] It had a very limited release (56 screens) its first weekend, finishing No. 16 at the domestic box office, then expanded into wide release, spending the next four weekends in the Top 10. [15]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 73% of 181 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.4/10.The website's 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." [16] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 60 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. [17]
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." [18] 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." [19] 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." [20]
