As I begin to write this review of Gifted (2017), I am balling my eyes out.  I am crying not because I am sad, though it does produce that emotion.  What I am feeling right now is overwhelmed but in a positive way.  In recent meetings with my spiritual director, he has been trying to get me to recognize the moments during the course of my day that God has touched my life, and to talk to God about the why behind them.  Here we are, Father, and this review will be me typing this out to you.  There is so much beauty in this movie, and I thank God for prompting me to press play on it.  I think I might have a new favorite film, and I hope you will stick with me as I explore it.

You might not expect someone who is Gifted, intellectually speaking, to want to avoid school, but this is how we meet Mary Adler (Mckenna Grace).  She lives with her uncle, Francis “Frank” Adler (Chris Evans), in a non-descript Florida town in Pinellas County.  He is the one taking care of her, as we later learn, because his sister, the once-in-a-millennium mathematical genius Diane Adler (stock photos), committed suicide shortly after Mary’s birth.  Frank does have some help, namely his neighbor Roberta Taylor (Octavia Spencer), who also does not approve of sending his brilliant niece to a normal school.  He is insistent because he fears locking up Mary in accelerated programs will not give the young girl a well-rounded experience in life, which he sees as contributing to what happened with Diane.  You cannot blame a former philosophy professor turned freelance boat mechanic for thinking this way.  Roberta is convinced that as soon Mary goes into the “real world” instead of continuing to be home schooled, her prodigious genius will be exposed and she will be taken away from Frank.  Nonetheless, with some warnings to do her best to fit in, Mary goes to first grade with the rest of her peers.  Immediately she is disinterested with her teacher, Bonnie Stevenson (Jenny Slate), demonstrating basic arithmetic to the rest of the students while Mary can do differential equations in her sleep.  After class as Mary is picked up by Frank, Bonnie suggests to the uncle that his niece might have the eponymous quality.  He explains it away as being a simple way of figuring out more complex division and multiplication called the Trachtenberg System.  His desire for Mary to maintain a low profile is tested when she stands up to a bully she witnesses trip another kid.  This triggers a meeting with Gloria Davis (Elizabeth Marvel), the principal, who forcefully argues that Mary belongs in a more challenging learning environment.  When Frank remains adamant that his niece remains where she is, Gloria decides to find out everything she can about Mary.  Because of Gloria’s sleuthing, a few days later Frank and Mary come home to find Evelyn Adler (Lindsay Duncan), Frank’s mother and Mary’s grandmother, at the door.  Evelyn repeats the same arguments for putting Mary in a different program, which Frank once more denies.  In their back-and-forth on the matter, Diane is used by both of them to prove the correctness of their stance.  Evelyn cannot accept that her brilliant daughter would want her own offspring in such substandard conditions.  Meanwhile, as one of the last people to see Diane alive, Frank feels he has a better understanding of Diane’s wishes in regards to Mary.  Not wanting to give up, Evelyn decides to take her son to court for custody.  These proceedings take a bulk of the middle of the film, so I will try to condense the case for you.  One of the first maneuvers employed is to judge Mary’s wishes.  The little girl meets with a child developmental specialist, to whom Mary makes it clear that she wants to stay with Frank.  She is also taken to Boston where Evelyn lives in order to meet with Professor Seymour Shankland (Jon Sklaroff), head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  As much as Mary loves math and solving problems, she still wishes to be with her uncle.  The next tactic employed by Evelyn’s legal team is to bring in Mary’s biological father, Bradley Pollard (Keir O’Donnell), to claim that his desire is for his daughter to be with Evelyn.  Greg Cullen (Glenn Plummer), Frank’s attorney, easily defeats this by pointing out that not only has Bradley not seen Mary in six years, but that her dad is unaware of his daughter’s middle name.  What breaks the case is when Frank is forced to testify.  It boils down to him not having the proper infrastructure to care for a child.  Thus, he agrees to a compromise that sends her to foster care, which is a heart wrenching scene.  Frank tries to go back to normal, but it is evident that he is hurting.  He is not interested in taking calls from Bonnie, with whom he has developed a romantic attachment, until he gets a text with a picture of Fred, the one-eyed cat he had with Mary.  Since the foster parents had agreed to take on the pet, and we have only met one other person with a feline allergy, Evelyn, it is obvious that Frank’s mother is more involved than the agreed upon arrangement.  With a stop at storage to get Diane’s prized mathematical theories, Frank and Roberta go to take back Mary.  When Evelyn protests, Frank shows her Diane’s papers, saying that her daughter did not want them published until after mom’s passing.  Not only does this obviate the problem solving for which she planned to groom Mary, but underscores that Frank is right.  In the end, while Mary does not return to the first grade, we last see her with a girl scout troop with a satisfied uncle looking on.

Gifted has a happy ending, and that is more than enough for me to enjoy it.  I can admit the quality of other types of movies, but this kind will always speak most to me.  Not to be too cliché, but I cried and laughed while watching it.  It has a little bit of everything for a Catholic reviewer.  There is a serious discussion between Frank and Mary about the existence of God.  While it is disappointing that he says he does not know whether God is real, he does say that he likes Jesus.  For a mainstream Hollywood movie, this is almost akin to having on-screen characters say a whole Rosary.  Another takes place following Mary feeling down about her biological father not wanting to see her.  To cheer her up, Frank takes her to the hospital to where babies are born.  Once one of the family members comes out to announce the birth and gender, Frank explains that the joy they witness was the same on the day she was born.  I almost completely lost it at that moment.  That is such a wonderful pro-life message.  As great as these scenes are, I would like to widen my approach to talk about the differences in philosophies between Evelyn and Frank as to how to raise Mary.  They each have the young girl’s best interests at heart and they should be praised for it.  The Catholic Church places the responsibility of being a parent in the confines of marriage, but it does recognize guardianship as no less of a vital vocation in the life of a child.  It takes putting another person before oneself, which they both seek to do, at least on the surface.  Part of their differences stem from the fact that they have their own wounds based on what happened with Diane.  Frank worries that he was not there enough for his sister, while deep down Evelyn fears that she pushed her daughter too hard.  In the end, they have to face their own inadequacies in order to arrive at what is best for Mary.  Bringing up children is an awesome responsibility, and in His wisdom God calls for two people to be involved in the process.  Doing so requires compromise, and this is where Evelyn and Frank land at the conclusion.  By doing so, they are blessed to be a part of the brightness of the next generation.  In no small way, such thinking has kept the Church going throughout the centuries.

I want to say that Gifted is a perfect film, though I could give it that label if I did not believe in my Faith wholeheartedly.  For example, Mary catching Bonnie the morning after her teacher sleeps with her uncle is not ideal.  Then again, what movie is perfect?  Even Star Wars has violence in it.  In any case, I give this one my strongest possible recommendation.