Review: Gifted

Who remembers 500 Days Of Summer? It's one of the few modern rom-coms that I enjoyed. That was directed by a man called Marc Webb.
He also did The Amazing Spider-Man films which started o.k, and then ended up making the same mistakes as the previous Spider-Man film series.
Now, he seems to be back to his former, with an uplifting drama.

The trailers certainly looked appealing. Chris Evans looked really charming, some of the scenes made me laugh and the story looked like one that would work.

From the first scene, it already had me smiling, laughing and feeling at ease. The chemistry with Evans and leading female McKenna Grace was instantly great and never lost pace. The first act sets us up nicely was some very memorable scenes. We then get into more of a serious angle for the second act. Then finale gives us a well deserved emotional pay-off whilst posing some great questions that I had myself jumping from one side to next multiple times.

Chris Evans is really good in this. His charm works so well with his character and his development with McKenna Grace's character is something I could watch all day. As for McKenna Grace, she is terrific. The execution of her characters sarcastic humor and sassy attitude was a real treat. She tugged at my heart strings rather well.
Lindsey Duncan was a top support. It is easy to forget how great she has been in pretty much all of her roles. She played the villainous role well and had a particular powerful scene in a courtroom that was a proper 'tour de force' moment.
Jenny Slate and Octavia Spencer also contributed well in their roles as well.

I think the only thing that would stop me from rating this extremely high, is the unoriginality and formulaic structure.

Sure it might be both of them. But its general execution made this highly entertaining.
On the face of it, it may look like something that is based off a Nick Sparks novel which for me they is quite schmaltzy for the most part. In the end, this is being really charming with a smart and funny script with top performances all-round.

There are many memorable scenes that are both powerful and very funny, and there are some show-stopping scenes that really moved me. It's great to see a film that is just about characters. There is no CGI or green screen required. It's just a nice peaceful environment with some interesting and well written characters that are engaging throughout.

There's also a cute cat in this, and that is always a nice little added mixture to an already successful recipe.

Rating: 8/10