Gifted (2017)

Robert Pattinson, Woody Harrelson to Get Deauville Festival Honors

3:30 AM PDT 8/22/2017 by Rhonda Richford

“The competition reflects an America that is breaking apart, a troubled America, one in which the youth is in search of both its roots and its future. Sometimes violence clashes with morality and hope. The premieres often illustrate an America in which illusion looms larger than reality,” said festival organizer Bruno Barde.

David Lowery’s A Ghost Story, starring Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara; Kurt Voekler’s The Bachelors, starring J.K. Simmons and Julie Delpy; Matt Spicer’s Ingrid Goes West, starring Elizabeth Olsen and Aubrey Plaza; Mark Webb’s Gifted, starring Chris Evans; and Jamie Dagg’s Sweet Virginia, the tale of an aging rodeo star starring John Bernthal and Imogen Poots, are among the competition titles.

Chloe Zao’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight winner The Rider is also in the running, along with Wayne Roberts’ young waitress story Katie Says Goodbye, Eliza Hittman’s bisexual coming of age story Beach Rats, Daryl Wein’s Chicago shooting drama Blueprint, Joshua Z. Weinstein’s Brooklyn Yiddish, about a single father in Hasidic Brooklyn, and Justin Chon’s Gook, about unlikely friends set against the 1992 L.A. riots are also among the titles.

Mark Myer’s My Friend Dahmer, about the infamous serial killer, Amman Abassi’s Alabama-set drama Stupid Things, and Anahita Ghazvinizadeh’s teen transition story They round out the competition titles.

Chris Evans steps away from Captain America to play a more ordinary hero in new film Gifted
Michele Manelis, Film writer, News Corp Australia Network
August 30, 2017 1:00pm
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TO millions of fans around the world, Chris Evans is known as Captain America in the hugely successful Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In the first Captain America film, the surprise hit The First Avenger, Evans was transformed from the physically flawed but morally upright Steve Rogers into the perfect human specimen, a soldier whose body operates at peak capability and with a sense of honour, duty and righteousness to match.

In returning to the role for two acclaimed sequels and two all-star Avengers team-ups, Evans’ Captain America has helped save the world time and again. So it’s little wonder that for one of his rare, but treasured, forays beyond the MCU, the actor would be attracted to something a little more low-key.

In the family drama Gifted, Evans gets in touch with his sensitive side to play a hero of a different kind: a struggling single father doing his best for the life of one child.

Not only did he relish the chance to step into the shoes of a totally different character, Evans also found freedom in stepping away from the regimented MCU world, with its huge expectation, and legions of fans who scour the internet for the tiniest clues as to where Captain America and his fellow superheroes might be going in the two eagerly anticipated Avengers movies due next year and 2019.
Chris Evans and Octavia Spencer in a scene from the movie Gifted. Roadshow Films.

“This departure from what I have spent my professional life involved in was absolutely satisfying,” Evans admits.

“In the comic-book world, there is a blueprint of what billions of loyal fans are expecting. With a movie like Gifted, you can call on deep personal experiences, which will best convey the truth behind this story.

“But there are challenges to both. For a movie like this, it’s a little scary because there’s no road map. With Captain America, the process can be tedious, but there is a ballpark you have to work within, and therein lies a certain level of comfort.”

Gifted director Marc Webb, the man behind beloved rom-com 500 Days of Summer, is no stranger to the superhero world — he steered Andrew Garfield in two previous instalments of the Spider-Man franchise.

Webb says he made it very clear to Evans that Gifted would be a “small movie”, but was thrilled when the actor signed on, describing him as “a wonderful, creative collaborator and a good friend”.

“People often think of Chris as Captain America, this sweet all-American guy, and he is all that,” says Webb. “But there is a dimension to him that you sense underneath, some melancholy that I think is really beautiful and hasn’t been explored a lot in his work. He’s incredibly skilled and very funny.”
A paternal Chris Evans makes a touching team with McKenna Grace, who plays his niece in Gifted.

Gifted tells the story of a man who steps up to raise his mathematically-gifted seven-year-old niece, Mary (McKenna Grace), following the suicide of her mother.

His unconventional approach to her upbringing stands in stark contrast to the dictates of the educational bureaucracy as well as to her grandmother’s eagerness to exploit Mary’s genius; consequently, a court battle for custody ensues.

Evans is familiar with the wheels of justice in family law.

“My younger sister is adopted, which is strange to say, because we had her since birth and to me she is just my sister, no different than a blood sister. But my parents began as her foster parents, then by the time Shanna was two or three they took the next step to begin the adoption process,” he explains.

“It would have been far trickier had my whole family, including my grandparents in Massachusetts, not been connected with a lot of aspects of the government, so we got fast-tracked.”

Evans remains resolutely single in his personal life. “Never married and no kids,” he says.

He pauses.

“That I know of.”

He laughs.

“Why do men say that? It’s such a trashy thing to say. It’s gross, it’s not charming. I am glad you laughed, but it’s such a pig thing to say.”

Evans was, however, dating his Gifted co-star Jenny Slate until earlier this year and still describes her as “my favourite human”.

His performance in Gifted alongside the precociously talented Grace suggests kids are a natural fit for Evans. The 36-year-old agrees he has a deeply ingrained paternal instinct.

“I have always wanted to have babies and to be a father, but the progression of things has to unfold a little bit before that can happen,” he says. “My sister has kids, all my friends have children and I love being around them. I am a very nostalgic person, myself, about my own life. There’s nothing more wonderful than watching my nieces and nephews begin to understand the nature of certain social norms, why people do things, and the nature of the human condition. That’s such a beautiful evolution.

“To some degree that having children, you almost get to relive your own childhood. And so in that selfish capacity, I am eager to have kids because there’s a lot of things that I bet even I have forgotten about my own life. And to watch kids find their way, find their voice, and find their joy, what a wonderful thing to help navigate.”

Unlike his clean-cut superhero alter ego, who was last seen at odds with Tony Stark and half the Avengers team at the end of Captain America: Civil War, this afternoon in Los Angeles Evans is rocking a hirsute appearance.

“I really like having a beard,” he says. “It helps me live with a certain amount of privacy because Captain America, of course, is clean-shaven. But lately I am doing a lot more movies with the beard, which means I may have to start shaving my face to get some privacy.”

Evans seems to have a healthy relationship with the push-and-pull of fame and success; he certainly doesn’t begrudge the role that has made him so recognisable the world over.

“God, if I hadn’t played Captain America, I don’t think I would have ever had the opportunity to play this character,” he says.

“So honestly, in retrospect it’s the best decision I ever made. I never set out to play a superhero, and even when Captain America came my way, I said no a few times because it just didn’t seem right with the story I had in my head.” He smiles. “Now I can’t imagine myself without it.”