A young girl, far surpassing anyone her age, kicks and screams like a child is known to do. While it breaks her uncle’s heart, he is also proud of her at the same time. She has been told she is great and that she was born a genius and will live out her life that way. But her uncle and her deceased mother want her to live a life fit for a kid: friends, playing outside, and a regular school that can teach her life lessons and real-world skills.

Kicking and screaming, tantrums, and tears are all signs of immaturity and childish tendencies. But for Frank Adler, this behavior is a good sign– a blessing. Reacting to pain and sadness with the anger and upset of a regular child for a child solving existence and differential equations is a step in the right direction to make sure she doesn’t end up ending her life one day like her mother.

Gifted, whose trailer I watched yesterday and hauled to see it the same day, was far better than expected.

The film industry’s notorious for casting people too old for the roles they’re portraying, but this time it worked well with the character. It was necessary for Mary Adler to seem higher up than those in her age bracket; so the supposed 7-year-old was played by 10-year-old actress McKenna Grace.

This girl plays her part so well, acting mature in her brain and knowledge state while maintaining a childlike air. She gives every ounce of her talent and capability into the movie, and it comes out like an absolute masterpiece.

Every simple movement, attitude strut, mathematical contemplation, sweet smile, betrayed tear, angry glare, and sudden resignation makes up the genius child she’s acting as.

Her uncle, played by Chris Evans, brings raw emotion and humor into the film. His utter selflessness and passion while still maintaining a human’s natural ability to be self-centered and lazy gives a real-life view of parenting in a situation that is less than ideal.

McKenna and Evans’ compatibility provides the movie with the sweetest feelings in the good parts and 45 minute sob sessions during the bad.

A father-like figure clutches his niece to his chest in reunion, tears streaming down both of their faces and most definitely mine, and there is true belief that they are related despite the proof.

The directors used lots of open space in its filming, showing wide open beach areas with small centers of attention, a huge college lecture hall containing one little girl attempting equations big enough to fill the rest of the empty desks, a foster home full of furniture, but still seemingly empty.

The cinematography and camera placement tells a lot about the atmosphere of the movie and adds to the already bear-trap-like vice of emotion on every heart in the vicinity.

My analytical mind appreciates plot twists and storyline curves, and this film was full of them. I loved every second of heartbreaking momentum and relieving spiral back up that came my way while watching it. It was like a younger, opposite perspective of Good Will Hunting.

“Irregardless,” this film will be one of the few non-horror movies I immediately add to my collection.