Friday, April 21, 2017

Gifted

Plot:
Frank (Chris Evans) is raising his niece Mary (Mckenna Grace), a child prodigy. Suddenly he's thrown into a custody battle with his mother (Lindsay Duncan). 

Pros:
•Mckenna Grace is by far the best part of this movie. She's only 10 but she's quite a good actress. Very funny as well and not in that obnoxious way like many child actors are. I got a few genuine laughs during some of her scenes. She and Chris Evans worked very well together. 
•Speaking of Chris Evans, he once again gives a good performance. I totally understand him wanting to do a quieter role like this. 
•Marc Webb is a fairly competent director. Yes I know he did the Amazing Spider-Man movies but all the issues they had were not his fault. 
•Some really gorgeous shots. 
•Short and moves at a good pace which I always appreciate. The whole movie is only about and hour and forty minutes. 

Cons:
•Extremely predictable. If you've seen the trailer you can pretty much guess how it'll all turn out. 
•While I thought the story was very sweet and had some genuinely touching moments, I felt like they played it way too safe. There's so much more they could've done with it. 
•Aside from Mckenna Grace and Chris Evans, the characters were very one dimensional. 
•Most of the movie was filmed well but for some reason there were a few scenes where March Webb chose to use a handheld camera (orbit seemed like he did). Very distracting and made me nauseous. I wanted to yell at the screen, "Oh for fucks sake!! Keep the camera still!"
•The courtroom scenes, while not the worst I've seen, felt like something from those made for TV movies I use to watch in the 90s all the time. 
•The whole love interest subplot with Mary's teacher added absolutely nothing to the story. 
•While a decent enough movie, it's not something I'd say you should see in theaters. This would be something I would normally watch on a Sunday afternoon if it was on tv and I was in the mood for a drama. 

My Rating: 7.5/10

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