Little Miss Sunshine . . .
Starring: Chris Evans, Mckenna Grace, Octavia Spencer, Lindsay Duncan
Director: Marc Webb
The Plot: After the suicide of his sister, a maths genius, Frank Adler (Evans) takes custody of his infant niece Mary (Grace), with the promise that he'll give her a normal life. Now aged seven and having been home schooled by Frank, with the help of their kindly neighbour Roberta (Spencer), Mary is sent to a regular school to be among other children. Here she's revealed to be a maths prodigy just like her mother, and this attracts the attention of Frank's estranged mother Evelyn, who begins a custody battle . . .
Review: Any film like this one, a drama revolving around family issues and especially one involving a young child, faces some difficult problems: take schmaltz, for example. You do need it for something like this. As an audience we need to care, and just the right amount of it can work wonders. Too much of it can ruin a film, making it a sugary mess that's hard to stomach. Too little of it (or none at all) can make us begin to wonder why are we even bothering? Why should we care about a bunch of people who clearly don't care about each other? Then there's the problem of originality, which is something that affects film-making in general these days. We've seen most things before, and when it comes to family dramas like this, we've definitely seen most things before, making it easy to predict the outcome.
If I were to say to you that Gifted has none of these problems and is perfect, I'd be lying. It does have these problems; the schmaltz not so much, as while there are the occasional moments that push into sugar territory (Hospital scene where they watch families celebrating new babies being born, I'm looking at you), on the whole it gets the balance about right. But in terms of originality it does suffer a fair bit. The film starts out pretty well, introducing us to Frank and Mary's somewhat quirky life in Florida where he repairs boats and she questions why she suddenly has to go to school, but it quickly becomes very easy to predict where the plot is taking us - revelation of Mary's gift, friendly teacher that's an obvious love interest for Frank, etc etc - and this only amplifies with the arrival of Mary's grandmother and the custody battle that ensues.
But, I didn't care.
This film has two performances that completely elevate it above its predictability, in my humble opinion. One is from a global star who has become known worldwide for his appearances in blockbuster Marvel films. The other is from a girl who, at time of writing, is only ten years old.
Let's start with Evans. I bet he was absolutely jumping at the chance for a film like this, that would allow him to really stretch his acting muscles. For the last six years he's been almost exclusively Captain America to the majority of audiences (I saw and liked his performance in 2012's The Iceman, but can many people honestly say they saw Snowpiercer, Before We Go or Playing It Cool? I certainly didn't, and I watch a shitload of films.) While Cap isn't all action - I for one rate his dramatic performances in both The Winter Soldier and Civil War - Evans isn't given nearly as much to work with as he does here. Frank is not a perfect character by far - he makes mistakes, he gets angry with Mary and upsets her - but he's never a prick, and Evans's portrayal is completely believable as that of an inherently good man who wasn't expecting fatherhood, but now that he has it, doesn't want to let it go. When he realises that the best opportunities in life for Mary may not be with him, he's torn. It's very easy, even for someone like me who doesn't have kids, to sympathise with Frank and to root for him, and while the script is in an important part of that, Evans's performance is really what nails it.
Mckenna Grace is something of a revelation. Every so often a child actor comes along that shows acting chops and wisdom beyond their years, and based on this performance Grace is the latest to be added to this list. Think of how Dakota Fanning wowed audiences when she was a child, and you're on the right track. Mary's character is a very difficult one to get right - on the one hand, there's the aspect of her personality dominated by her superior intelligence, the one that gets fully absorbed by mathematics and makes the other kids her age seem "boring", and yet on the other hand there's the other aspect of her that's still a seven year-old kid, who plays with Lego and watches Ice Age over and over on DVD and gets angry and misbehaves sometimes. Grace plays both sides of Mary perfectly and, much like Evans, makes the actions and reactions of the character completely believable.
The two form the core of the film, and it wouldn't work without them. Their emotional scenes together are particularly effective, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I rolled some manly tears during the third act when Frank and Mary are reunited (if you watch it and remain dry-eyed, you can consider yourself a heartless fuck.) I'm kind of a sucker for a father-daughter relationship these days, which I put down to the ongoing effect that my favourite video game of all time, The Last of Us, has had on me. Oh God, the feels. There's a somewhat similar vibe here in Gifted - Mary doesn't call Frank "Dad", he doesn't refer to her as his daughter, and interestingly enough there's not one point in the film where either of them says "I love you" to the other. They don't need to say it, and you completely understand why.
In comparison the rest of the cast don't have as much to work with. The wonderfully talented Octavia Spencer could do this role in her sleep, and Jenny Slate (as Bonnie, Mary's teacher/Frank's love interest) gets sidelined for most of the third act. Lindsay Duncan, as Frank's ice-queen mother Evelyn, gets more material to work with but, while her performance is fine, the character is again one where originality is not a strong suit, and it's very easy to predict which skeletons are going to fall out of her closet and what decisions are going to be made.
Director Marc Webb does a good job here, in my opinion. Prior to shooting both Amazing Spider-Man films for Sony he directed the 2009 bittersweet comedy (500) Days of Summer, so he's no stranger to telling films with heart. There are moments of comedy and levity to break up the more emotional moments, and he extracts the two performances from the leads that make the film what it is. It's also a wonderfully shot film, with the panoramic Florida coastline providing a beautiful setting for the somewhat unconventional family life on display.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
While the film suffers from predictability and (occasional) moments of too much schmaltz, the lead performances from Chris Evans and Mckenna Grace provide a captivating story that's emotionally charged and elevates the film above these issues. Highly recommended!
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