Well this review took WAY longer than it should have. And it’s not because of taking a while before not writing this. I just saw the movie today and I’m writing this maybe a few hours after I got back from seeing it. I was supposed to go to an advanced screening like a month ago but the screening was full and I never got to use the reimbursement ticket they gave me. Well thankfully the film was worth the weight.

This seems to be the year of actors giving their best performances yet, at least in my opinion. We got Hugh Jackman in Logan, Vin Diesel in Fate of the Furious and now Chris Evans in this movie. I’ve always liked him in other movies I’ve seen him in, but this is probably my favorite performance from him. Though I haven’t seen Snowpiercer yet and I’ve heard he’s great in that too. But the real star of this movie is McKenna Grace as Mary. This kid is going places because she was fantastic. I wouldn’t be surprised if she gets an award or two for her performance in this next year. And of course, you can’t go wrong with Octavia Spencer. Is it even possible for her to give a bad performance?

But the only performance I’m not completely sold on is Lindsay Duncan as Evelyn, the grandmother. It’s not she does bad, but it’s difficult to see what exactly her characters intentions are and why she’s so desperate to take Mary away from Frank. You might think from the trailers that she just genuinely thinks Mary should be allowed to live up to her genius potential and that requires her being taken away. But certain things you find out about her and the things she’s done, which I won’t give away, make her come across as downright evil(there’s one particular thing she does near the end that was super cruel. Trust me, you’ll know what it is when it happens.), but then there are moments where it seems like she does legitimately care about her.

But aside from that and some other questionable things, I had very few issues with this movie and I loved it. The cast is great and they all have fantastic chemistry, it has heart, drama, comedy and a tons of charm. In fact, that’s actually the best word I can think of to sum up this movie; Charming. Gifted gets 4.25/5 Ping Pong Balls. Definitely go give it a watch.