NOTE: THIS AND ALL FUTURE SCREENINGS WILL BE AT THE BEACON ARTS VILLAGE, THE OLD TOWN HALL, ONE, THE QUADRANT, HOYLAKE CH47 2EE

DOORS OPEN 6.30pm. BAR AND FOOD AVAILABLE FROM 6.30 – 11.30 pm. FILM STARTS 7.30pm.

Cast:
Chris Evans (Frank Adler)
Mckenna Grace (Mary Adler)
Lindsay Duncan (Evelyn Adler)
Jenny Slate (Bonnie Stevenson)
Octavia Spencer (Roberta Taylor)

In Marc Webb’s touching family melodrama, ten year old Mckenna Grace plays the precocious Mary Adler, the “gifted” daughter of a deceased maths genius.

Mary lives in a small town near Tampa, Florida, with her boat mechanic uncle Frank (Chris Evans); her only friends are their neighbour Roberta (Octavia Spencer) and a one-eyed ginger cat named Fred. For reasons that emerge during the film, Frank is adamant that Mary should live as ‘normal’ a life as possible and enrols her in a ‘normal’ school so that she can learn to get along with kids her own age. But, as his estranged mother, Evelyn (brilliantly and icily portrayed by Lindsay Duncan) insists: “She’s not normal…treating her as such is negligence on a grand scale.”

Of course things unravel as an escalating powerplay within the family, and between the education and legal authorities threaten to tear their lives apart…

There’s a wonderful chemistry between Frank and Mary; they often debate like adults; with Mary at one point questioning the existence of God with searing logic… yet we are reminded of her tender age in poignant moments that a lesser director would have served up with ladlefuls of schmaltz … instead Webb drives home a series of powerful punches with a lightness of touch.

Comedian Jenny Slate shines as Bonnie, Mary’s well-meaning schoolteacher, as does Octavia Spencer as Roberta, Mary’s neighbour and surrogate mother figure.

An unexpectedly terrific and heart warming film.