If you have seen the movie "gifted" and want to discuss specific scenes, this discussion thread is for you! Great suggestion, LAF.

If you have NOT seen the movie, rather than reading this thread, you might want to watch the trailer in the discussion thread here: Movie Trailer - "gifted - coming in Spring 2017.

Is everyone familiar with the spoiler function located in the tool bar just above the editing window on these discussion forums?
You can use this function if you want to provide a spoiler alert within your post to help keep other members from accidentally reading something. Select your text and click the button having an "S" with a diagonal slash through it.

It will look like this in your edit window:
[ s p o i l e r ] t e x t [ / s p o i l e r ] (note: one extra space added between each character in this sample)

It will look like this in your post:

So indigo, what did you think? By the way, I'm not going to include the spoiler code in this post as you already wrote spoilers in the subject line but if you think I should let me know and I will revise this post.

Anyway I had some interesting discussions with my kids about it... I found it interesting that they included a scene where she felt that her classmate's diorama was better than hers (so not gifted at everything) and her reaction was pretty right on (overreaction?) when it came to fairness.

I also liked that they included that neither the uncle or the grandmother had the right idea in how to educate Mary (they were both too far to one side or the other), but in the end the compromise looked promising as being a pretty good solution- even if it was a simplified one.

I also explained to my kids that even though Mary was obviously profoundly gifted in math, someone still taught her strategies in math (and she read books on math) so she didn't learn advanced math in a vacuum. But she was obviously interested in math, and her mother as well as her grandmother was too so genetics played a role.

What did you think? I was actually a bit worried that it would be too cliche and give my kids the wrong message, but I think it actually did a good job at the story it was trying to tell. Mary was still very much a kid. A gifted kid who really really liked advanced math but also needed to have friendships with kids her own age. And ironically, I've found a ton of gifted kids in the boy and girl scouts. Where I live it is almost like a magnet for them..

Parents know their own kids best, and parental preview of movies and reading material is always a good idea. That said, the common sense media summary was accurate; Those subjects were touched upon and not belabored... however some audience members may hone in on them.

See spoiler 5 in the next post below.

I'd say masking our posts with spoiler alerts is really not necessary, but I thought I'd mention it because it is sort of fun and different.

That is the true beauty of this movie, IMO... the many jumping off points for conversations on topics which may usually be considered "things we do not talk about".

spoiler 1:
Yes! That gifted sense of justice. spoiler 2:

spoiler 3:
Ah, yes... nature and nurture... giftedness and opportunity. spoiler 4:
So many thoughts here. spoiler 5:

Thanks, I realize it is impossible for strangers to make accurate assessments but the no belaboring comment is a big help.

My kids have belabored big issues since they could talk so it is often hard to know how to take warnings about "heavy themes" and "serious issues". Sometimes it is things they've already obsessed about it many times over the years, at other times they focus on things that other kids their age wouldn't bother paying attention to so it can cut both ways. Watching Hidden Figures a couple months ago produced days of child initiated discussions about civil and women's rights. I'm guessing many grade 3's wouldn't have sat through it in total awe, never mind wanting to discuss the issues in depth.

LAF, did you like the scene with the walk at sunset...

I loved that scene. I also liked how they revealed that he had been a professor of philosophy- somehow I can see a professor of philosophy dropping out and living the way he did to raise Mary.

I also liked a scene where Evelyn and Frank are talking and they have a similarity of banter/humor that made me think that she is where Frank got his sarcastic sense of humor. I think one scene also explains Evelyn's relentless drive to make her daughter into what she felt she should have been (Mary said to her, after you got married, no more math?) so that's why Evelyn drove off the boyfriend and tried to keep her "focused." They did a really good job with their character development.

The first compromise with the foster family made NO sense to me. It made more sense that Mary would stay with Frank with support and visitation from Evelyn and maybe they would put her into the gifted school. So I don't understand how either of them would have agreed to take Mary away from Frank and put her with strangers. The cat ending up where it did was ridiculous...BUT I loved that when he left he didn't just take Fred he took all three cats...

Two more scenes keep returning to mind:

1. Possibly every parent of a gifted child has felt this way...
2. Possibly every parent of a gifted child has felt this way, too...
Because this scene appeared as a clip in the trailer, I won't place my recap of it inside a spoiler alert:
Frank was asked what his greatest fear was. He said, "That I ruin Mary's life."
That sentiment seems to be echoed in many forum discussion threads about advocacy, acceleration, etc...

I know when he said that was his biggest fear I remember thinking.. yep.

Indigo, regarding the book "Transitions in Advanced Algebra" the production company may have created a name for the book (especially if they were possibly going to show it on screen) that doesn't exist so they would not have to obtain permission from a publisher. Many films do this so that they do not have legal issues if they are not able to receive permission (copyrights for films are usually licensed for perpetuity within the film- this goes for music especially).

I wondered if the book title may have been made-up. But I am glad the Trachtenberg system was real and that they found a way to work it into conversation in the movie... helpful resource.

Special-K had great product placement; They could have created a generic cereal for the movie (like creating a generic math book). LOL, now after watching "gifted" movie, I will always think twice when someone says they've made me a "special breakfast!"

I enjoyed the emotional connections to the characters, the humor and interactions, but I can't seem to let go of the extremity of the foster solution and the cat. It really made no sense; they totally could've reached a better solution earlier. But then it wouldn't have had the big movie drama plot.

Right! I think we all agree

Yeah, that was just far too contrived and perfect; so perfect, it made it pretty obvious they really could've worked out a compromise earlier. I can pick apart a few other things, too.

Funny, I never had those thoughts...! The lack of same-age friends was simply a given. In my observation and experience, gifted kiddos can be in many activities, enjoy the company of the kids there, be well-received and accepted... and yet not have a friendship bloom and develop that is sustained outside of the activity. These gifted kiddos can simply have other things on their minds... ideas and interests that most age-mates cannot relate to. Actress Octavia Spencer describes this well, I think, in several segments of an interview here... "wise beyond her years... see the world very differently from most people... live in their minds... shell..."

What I saw in this...
I actually enjoyed this treatment of the topic "gifted", and thought it gave the movie a broader appeal...

Thanks for mentioning this movie, Hidden Figures. It is an excellent movie with a star-studded cast, now out on Blu-ray. I highly recommend it. The main protagonist, Katherine Johnson, is now 98 years old.

No doubt she is a gifted individual. NASA links:
1. Who is Katherine Johnson (Jan 18, 2017)
2. Katherine Johnson Biography (Dec 1, 2016)
3. Mathematician Katherine Johnson at Work (Feb 25, 2016)
4. Former NASA Langley Mathematician to be Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom (Nov 17, 2015)
5. Katherine Johnson: A Lifetime of STEM (Nov 6, 2013)

The NASA website also features brief biographies of the movie's other two central characters:
- Dorothy Vaughan (played by Octavia Spencer, who was also in the movie "gifted"),
- Mary Jackson who graduated with highest honors from high school.

I was wondering who wrote those solutions in the yellow paper found by the grandmother near the end of the movie?

I am inclined to think that it was Diane who wrote those solutions, but the drawings and the "YES" made me think otherwise.