Gifted

Warm and heartfelt performances from the two principals are undercut by a formula that too readily reveals the outcome. Interesting workings fail to fully add up. Must do better next term. Full Review

Despite its recycled tropes, the comedy-drama manages to be both funny and moving even if its emotional manipulations are fully apparent. Full Review

In attempting to balance the central conflict between Frank and Evelyn, a nature-vs.-nurture clash with a dash of class warfare, the movie comes up disappointingly short. Full Review

What's in a child's best interest? It depends on who's answering the question. That's the crux of "Gifted," the director Marc Webb's return to small-scale features after tangling with spidey. Full Review

Not your run-of-the-mill melodrama. More like an exceptional melodrama. Full Review

It disappointingly gets tangled up in plot contrivances, and the real issue of gifted children is just a gooey fantasy. Full Review

The question at the movie's heart is: What is best for Mary? The answer Gifted chooses is predictable, but that doesn't stop the movie from messing with your tear ducts. Full Review

You'll need a tissue, not a calculator, for the tender-hearted finale. Full Review

The movie is a bit of a crock - a stacked-deck family drama that's all bits and pieces stuck together out of a screenwriter's handbook. Full Review

Unfortunately, Gifted's cutesy classroom scenes are not quite up to the task of digging into how Mary fits in with her classmates, and the film quickly gives way to increasingly caricatured depictions... Full Review