Gifted

 

Gifted is a 2017 American drama film directed by Marc Webb and written by Tom Flynn. It stars Chris Evans, Mckenna Grace, Lindsay Duncan, Jenny Slate and Octavia Spencer.

In St. Petersburg, Florida, seven-year-old Mary Adler, a mathematical genius, lives with her uncle and de facto guardian, Frank. Her best friend is her 43-year-old neighbor, Roberta Taylor. Frank, a former philosophy professor now boat mechanic, feels strongly that Mary should attend a normal elementary school so she can have a normal childhood.

On her first day of first grade, Mary shows remarkable mathematical talent, which impresses her teacher, Bonnie Stevenson. She approaches Frank about it but he tries to pass it off as the Trachtenberg system until she tricks Mary into completing a college math test, and confronts him again.

It emerges that Mary's mother, Diane, had been a genius mathematician, dedicated to the Navier–Stokes problem (one of the unsolved Millennium Prize Problems) before committing suicide when Mary was six months old. Mary has lived with Frank ever since.

Despite Mary’s initial disdain for average children her own age and her boredom with their classwork, she begins to bond with them when she brings her one-eyed cat Fred for show-and-tell. Later, she defends a classmate from a bully on the school bus, something that Frank is not concerned about.

After the incident, the principal, having discovered Mary’s math talent, encourages Frank to send Mary to a private school for gifted children, offering the opportunity of a scholarship. However, he turns it down, based on his family's experiences with similar schools.

The principal contacts Frank's estranged mother and Mary's maternal grandmother Evelyn. As a former mathematician herself, she is of the opinion that people with capabilities such as Mary’s have an obligation to use their talents to further help society.

Evelyn therefore feels that Mary should be specially tutored in preparation for a life devoted to mathematics, much as Diane was. However, Frank is adamant that his sister would want Mary to be in a normal school and have the childhood she did not have. So, Evelyn later sues him for full custody.

While Evelyn is on the stand in court, it is revealed that she kept Diane socially isolated, forcing her to be completely focused on mathematics. When Diane and her teenage boyfriend secretly went off to a ski resort, Evelyn threatened to charge him with kidnapping, forcing him to break up with Diane. Her daughter attempted suicide for the first time shortly after, which she argues was an isolated incident.

When Frank takes the stand, he admits working at a low-paying job without health insurance. His lawyer, worried that the judge will side with Evelyn who has a better financial situation, encourages Frank to take a deal offered by Evelyn’s lawyer. Mary would be placed in foster care and attend the private school dictated by Evelyn. The foster parents live 25 minutes from Frank's home, he will be entitled to scheduled visits, and Mary will be able to decide where she wants to live after her 12th birthday.

Devastated at being placed in foster care, Mary seemingly refuses to see Frank when he visits. Later, he learns that Fred was put up for adoption. Realizing that Evelyn, who is allergic to cats, must be overseeing Mary's education in the foster home, Frank rescues Fred and reconciles with Mary.

Frank reveals to Evelyn that Diane had completed the Navier–Stokes Problem, which their mother was obsessed with and pushed her to solve. However, she instructed Frank to publish the equation only after Evelyn’s death, which reveals her deep resentment towards her mother.

Frank offers Evelyn the opportunity to publish Diane's work in exchange for Mary's custody, to which she agrees. He takes Mary home, where she socializes with children her age while taking college-level courses.