Tuesday, April 25, 2017

"Gifted" | That's Keep on Giving

04.25.2017 – There are underrated films out there that clearly tell the simplest stories that sometimes can relate to most people in real life. There’s nothing like ‘life imitates art’ when you talk about movies you’d be surprise they really meant for the few.

“Gifted” is one of small art house films that’s hardly noticed and under the radar due to money making blockbusters that dominate the cinemas nowadays. In the Philippine market this type of film should be appreciated more since it’s a rare gem.


The premise is a story of an intellectually gifted 7-year-old who gets caught up in a custody battle between her uncle and grandmother. Clearly that’s the basic premise of the film just something on the surface, but if you look deep between its narratives it is something that catches your attention between the processes on how this one fine day in Mary Adler’s life became a complicated and yet challenging story.

Chris Evans’ character certainly has a lot of explaining to do, but in front of the audience he doesn’t need to say anything it clearly unravels who Frank Adler is underneath in the world of Mary Adler’s life. Octavia Spencer fresh from portraying a mathematician may not be the genius that she was in Hidden Figures, but she’s the voice of advice that Frank needs in his journey.



There’s no love lost for Evelyn Adler, the grandmother of Mary portrayed Lindsay Duncan. She’s the one who certainly popped up in the first place who would have her own skeletons in her closet, metaphorically speaking. Along for this story is Bonnie Stevenson portrayed by Jenny Slate, who was Mary’s teacher finding how complicated her student’s life was.

Each and everyone in this story have their own journey of rediscovery who they are to Mary that touches some people on the emotional level. It may not be related to being a genius, but it shows that at the heart of it all conflicts and misunderstanding can bring people together.

This was certainly an emotional tale that some can relate to and Mary is a gift that keeps on giving in a sense of appreciating her childhood in simple things. But her own travels in life has its own challenges dealing with society outside her uncle at the same time finding out who she really was, that makes this one of the interesting films to see. But not as perfect as you thought it would be though Marc Webb has a better hold of weaving this together than his previous films that involves a guy dressed as a spider from New York.



In the end this is also a little bit of a relatable film for Evans as being the guy from Boston but not his character, which makes this film more personable to the actor though overall this deserve some appreciation with newcomer McKenna Grace. She almost stole the scenes, but Fred the one-eyed cat was probably the one who deserves the applause just as her human actors getting the critical praise.

“Gifted” is definitely an engaging drama in a complicated mathematical story of a young genius that is something for everyone to look forward to see in Philippine theatres on May 3, 2017 from Fox Searchlight to be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures International.

RATED: 4 out of 5 Stars

NOTE: This film is screened privately in advance by invitation from 20th Century Fox. This is reviewed and rated personally to build interest about the film.

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