Gifted

First Hit:  Well-acted story about love and doing the best for the ones you love. This film is about how one raises a child that is not your own, a genius,  while having a conflict with the biological family. It is also about ego and family.

Frank Adler (Chris Evans) is raising his sister’s daughter Mary (McKenna Grace). His sister committed suicide and as we learn later in the film, she may have run out of a purpose for living. Her purpose was solving a specific math theorem. How Frank ends up with Mary is slightly shrouded in mystery and begs the question; where's the biological father in all this?

Their mother Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan) is wealthy, smart on her own accord, and suddenly becomes interested in Mary, when it’s discovered that the young girl is also a genius.

Frank has help raising his niece. Roberta (Octavia Spencer) is a neighbor and loves Mary as her own. Mary spends Saturday nights with Roberta allowing Frank some space and relaxation from being a sudden father figure. Roberta also gives Frank child rearing guidance as well as an undying trusted friendship.

Frank’s history with his family comes to play when his mother attempts to take Mary away from him because she wants Mary to be schooled privately and then pushed into doing theoretical mathematics at MIT. However, Frank wants to fight to keep Mary because that is what his sister wanted. She wanted Mary to have a more normal life, not the kind of life she had and he agrees.

Helping both Frank and Mary is Mary’s school teacher Bonnie (Jenny Slate). Bonnie identified Mary’s potential and also saw the kindness in her heart. She helps Frank find a way to do what he needs to do.

Evans was excellent. To see him in this type of serious role showed me (and the audience) he’s more than Captain America. Grace was sublime. I loved watching her be both a fun-loving kid, as expressed when she lipped synced with Roberta, and as a smart kid who knows how compute complex mathematical formulas. Duncan was perfect as the wealthy overbearing controlling mother. Spencer was divine as Frank's close friend and part time baby sitter. Slate was very good and I really liked how she took it upon herself to help Frank find a way to make Mary’s transition work. Tom Flynn wrote a very strong script that reflected the different sides and issues well. Marc Webb did a nice job of staging the scenes and story.

Overall:  This was an engaging picture and I ended up liking the story.

The Secret Life of Pets

First Hit:  Made me think about what our dog might be doing while I was watching this film.  

Pi in hat

There are moments in this film where the animators and voice artists get dogs and cats perfectly right:  Watch the dogs circle to lie down. Other times they were represented as we might want them to be or the way we think they are.

The voice acting in this film is very strong; among them are:  Jenny Slate as Gidget. Louis C.K. as Max. Lake Bell as Chloe. Albert Brooks as Tiberius and the fully engaging Kevin Hart as Snowball the bunny.

Pi Smile Carpet edit

The overall story is that Max and Duke get lost and their friends come to help them find their way home. The animation was very strong and did an excellent job of catching their behaviors. Listening to the children in the theater react to this animated film was the signal telling me the writers and directors were spot on. They captured the young demographic perfectly.

The film did feel a little long and I would have cut the entire sequence in the sausage factory, thought it was unnecessary and didn't move the real story along.

Slate, C. K., Bell, Brooks and Hart’s voices were fully engaging and wonderful. Cino Paul and Ken Daurio wrote a very strong and fun screenplay. Yarrow Cheney and Chris Renaud did a great job of directing this animated feature and getting the most out of the voice actors.

Overall:  This film was fun and I left the theater happy.

Obvious Child

First Hit:  This film is direct, at times interesting, and at other times touching.

Although the film is about a woman comedian, it doesn’t necessarily make it a comedy. Is it funny at times? Yes.

But what struck me about this film was the directness of the main character Donna Stern (played by Jenny Slate). Directness doesn’t make the character smart or making smart choices, yet the frankness of Stern’s (character) is admirable.

For me this film is really about how we keep people away by not being open in our hearts to see how others might be reaching out. The opening sequence has Donna on stage at a small comedy club sharing her life and her life with her current boyfriend. As comedians will do, her observations of their relationship in public do not make him feel good, and after the show he dumps her. This begins a sequence of events that have her begin trying to discover more about her life.

Enter Max (Jake Lacy), a very different man than she’s used to being around. This film is about changing, seeing oneself and another in a deeper way and trusting the feelings and another person. My favorite two scenes: When she tells her mom she’s pregnant and when she’s on the couch with Max at the end – both very touching.

Slate was really good at portraying a woman needing to shift her view of family and her life. Lacy was strong as a solid guy who cares and wants to care about Donna. Polly Draper as Nancy Stern (mother) was good at showing her heart at the right time. Richard Kind as Donna’s dad Jacob was also good as the creative dad Donna relates to. Gillian Robespierre and Kelly Maine wrote a very strong script. Robespierre did a really good job of directing this story.

Overall:  It was a good film about a woman making a difficult decision and learning to let go of her stranglehold on her own heart.