Chris Evans is Frank Adler, who is the guardian of his niece Mary (McKenna Grace) a seven year old with a special ability for solving complex mathematical equations despite her tender age. When Frank decides that home schooling can offer her nothing else he to sends Mary to regular public school classes where she is, understandably, bored by the seeming basic tuition. When her teacher Bonnie Stevenson (Jenny Slate) realises just what a talent she has, Mary is offered a scholarship to a private school for gifted children. Having seen what this kind of education done to his sister he turns the offer down but her estranged grandmother Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan) emerges from the shadows to ensure that Mary gets the education she believes she should have. This begins a battle over the custody of Mary and the ethical question emerges as to whether Mary should be allowed to live the life of a normal kid with her uncle, who undoubtedly loves her as if she were his daughter, or should her talent be honed and nurtured to ensure she fulfils the full scope of her abilities.

 

 

While this may all sound a little melodramatic the refreshing take this movie has is that it doesn’t ever really answer the question it poses, instead it focuses on the characters who are causing the question to be posed. Grace plays Mary with the cuteness of Jonathan Lipniki in Jerry Maguire, she is never anything other than a seven year old child, with natural curiosity and mood swings as any child of her age. She knows that she is different but her ability is just something that she can do and her bond with Frank is her whole world. Evans is excellent as Frank, a relatively carefree spirit, happy to earn a few quid repairing boats. Devoted to looking after his niece but torn by the developing decision he has to make as he realises that treating Mary as a normal child may not be the best thing for her education but he is fearful of sending her down the same path as her mother, so he tries to protect her but deep down knows that he’s inevitably going to fail. It’s nice to see him away from the Captain America suit and he get to show his dramatic range with his bonds with Mary and her kind hearted teacher Bonnie both having an air of gravitas adding to the reality of the situation.

 

 

Duncan plays the grandmother with an almost pantomime essence and although the story set her out as the villain what she is trying to achieve for Mary is not the wrong thing to do either, which adds an interesting twist. She is fearful that Mary’s talents will go to waste and wants nothing more than to see her grand daughter carry on the work that her daughter has completed, keeping the academic tradition of the family going.

What could have turned into a Hallmark movie is kept from doing so by some good direction by Mark Webb who uses his experience from 500 Days Of Summer and The Spider-Man reboot, to ensure the serious is sporadically filled with moments of levity either in the script or on screen activities which stops the drama becoming too heavy.

 

 

For a smaller budget movie this is one of the more enjoyable films I have seen in the past few weeks and, although the subject matter may not be something that captures your attention this is will worth checking out and it would be a shame if you missed this one with some of the poor efforts which have graced our present in recent times.

DJ Speaks Movies Rating: 5.5 Out Of 10

© Darren Jones 2017