Like, how did she make it to her age with a parent figure as smart as him, with a flexible work schedule, and not have made friends along the way? Not one kid from story time at the library? No outside activities at all? If he wanted her to be "a kid," why wasn't she in t-ball, dance, gymnastics, art class, etc at 4, 5, 6?
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..."
Not to mention, the ending, with the manuscript, why didn't he just pull that thing out right away? He didn't have trouble 'buying her off' after she deceived him.
What I saw in this...
...was that Frank delayed in pulling out the manuscript because he was trying to honor Diane's wishes to not allow her work to be published until after her mother's death.
I think Frank saw that Evelyn would ruin Mary's life (as I believe Evelyn ruined Diane's life) unless Evelyn's own aims were satisfied. Evelyn's stop-at-nothing desperation to be related to eminence was revealed by Evelyn moving into the foster family's guest house and hiring tutors. Diane's manuscript would surely satisfy Evelyn's aims, and thereby release Mary from a life dedicated to fulfilling her grandmother's dreams.
If Frank could not help both Diane and Mary escape Evelyn's grasp, then at this point "betraying" Diane (by allowing Evelyn to see Diane's work published) was surely of less negative consequence than betraying Mary (by allowing Evelyn to run Mary's young life, as she had run Diane's life).
Honestly, I thought the movie would be more about...
the girl, when it was more about the uncle and the mom and the bitter pill of ambition being above all else.
I actually enjoyed this treatment of the topic "gifted", and thought it gave the movie a broader appeal...
Rather than depict Mary in tight detail, as a documentary might, or a portrait painting... to me, the treatment of the gifted child was more like an impressionist painting (which focuses less on painstaking detail and more on the effect of the surrounding light on the object).
This seemed to mirror conversations on these forums... once it is known that a child is gifted (to whatever degree), we labor for years to create understanding and support among family, friends, schools, etc.
To what degree is a gifted child's life scripted? Where is the line drawn between support of developing one's potential... and pushing or hot-housing toward eminence (to the exclusion of other interests and relationships)?
The movie also allowed a viewer to imagine different scenarios...
- what if Frank and Mary's life had gone on without Evelyn showing up?
- what if Evelyn had taken over?
... before seeing the best of all worlds unfolding:
- Frank being open to experimenting a bit with Mary's education, while keeping up her interest and involvement with typical kid things.
