Movie · 2017 · Drama, Comedy · 1h 41m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 5.5/10 (491K ratings)
How do you create an ordinary life for an extraordinary girl?
Overview
Frank, a single man raising his child prodigy niece Mary, is drawn into a custody battle with his mother.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.5/10
IMDb: 7.6/10
Letterboxd: 3.68/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 73%
Metacritic: 60
TMDB: 8.0/10
Director
Marc Webb
Production
Grade A Entertainment, FilmNation Entertainment, Dayday Films
Cast
Chris Evans, Mckenna Grace, Lindsay Duncan, Jenny Slate, Octavia Spencer, Glenn Plummer, John Finn, Kelly Collins Lintz, Joe Chrest, Keir O'Donnell, John M. Jackson, Julie Ann Emery, Jona Xiao, Candace B. Harris, Jon Sklaroff, Brody Rose, Michael Kendall Kaplan, Elizabeth Marvel, Maia Moss-Fife, Ashley Lauren Thomas
Curator Review
Verdict
A warm, crowd-pleasing family drama with enough wit and emotional sincerity to outweigh its familiar structure. It works best as a character piece about guardianship, sacrifice, and what it means to give a child a normal life without erasing what makes her exceptional.
Best for
viewers who like heartfelt family dramas
fans of child-prodigy stories
audiences looking for an easy emotional watch
people who enjoy custody-battle melodrama with charm
Skip if
you want a highly original plot
you dislike sentimental tearjerkers
you prefer hard-edged legal dramas
you are looking for a comedy with constant laughs
Overview
Gifted is built on a familiar setup, but it earns its feelings through strong performances and a clear emotional center. The film understands that the real conflict is not math versus no math, but competing ideas of care: protection, ambition, stability, and love. That gives the custody-battle framework a human scale that stays engaging even when the story leans predictable.
Worth noting
Chris Evans plays against type with an easy, grounded warmth, and Mckenna Grace gives the movie its spark as a child whose intelligence is never reduced to a gimmick. The supporting cast helps keep the tone light enough to avoid becoming a courtroom slog, while the film’s softer comic touches and domestic details make the family dynamic feel lived-in.
Bottom line
It is not a movie that surprises often, and some turns are engineered for maximum emotional payoff. But as an accessible drama about responsibility, grief, and the pressure placed on gifted children, it is effective and genuinely likable. If you are in the mood for something tender rather than challenging, it lands well.
Top Letterboxd reviews
ivana (4★) · 6494 likes
HE WANTED ME BEFORE I WAS SMART
Iina (5★) · 4721 likes
7 year old mary adler out there doing rocket science math and im in college punching in "1+1" in my calculator just to make sure it's still "2"
mulaney (4.5★) · 3600 likes
i am so completely in love with chris evans it's not even funny anymore it's just sad
rach (4.5★) · 3163 likes
when frank adopted all the cats that were going to be put down, I'm not crying you are
lauren (4★) · 2880 likes
nice try chris evans but you’ll never get me to care about math