"gifted" Brings The Pope's Words To Light
"One cannot love unless it is at their own expense" -- Pope Francis, TED Talk
This week I took my seven year-old son to see "gifted", starring Chris Evans, Octavia Spenser, Lindsay Duncan, McKenna Grace (the cutie), and Jenny Slate. Littlle did I realize when I did, that this movie was going to be a visual, entertaining and touching compilation of everything that the Pope had expressed in his recent TED Talk video, circulated earlier that day by the media.
The running theme of the Pope's message - reminding us of the importance of caring, including, supporting, and fighting for each other and our collective future - remains at the center of gifted. An uncle (Chris Evans) parenting his dead sister's child (McKenna Grace), whose extraordinary brilliance threatens to destroy all opportunity for a childhood and her ability to remain with the family she knew and loved, reflects the importance of keeping perspective as we continue to evolve, both individually and as a whole.
There is no doubt that the timeliness and meaningfulness of this movie was incredibly insightful. I applaud director Marc Webb, FilmNation Entertainment, and Fox Searchlight Pictures for answering the call of the Pope even before he had formally taken up the mic with TED. And I applaud all of the actors as well as the entire team who contributed their enormous talent to create a film that would make my child contemplate exactly what I did when I watched the Pope caution the world against losing sight of "humanity" and our responsibility towards each other as a result of our thirst for knowledge and advancement.
Any parent who hasn't taken his (her) child to see this movie should do so now. There is a great deal of love and wisdom to be had and as the Pope noted that both come at our own expense...the price of a ticket or two seems like a steal in comparison to the cost of not doing so.
And by the way, just to re-emphasize, THREAD MB does not do paid endorsements. That is just one way in which we fulfill our responsibility to mankind and live up to the words the Pope so sincerely expressed.