Social Work Goes to the Movies: GIFTED

(Editor’s Note: This review contains spoilers.)

     Seven-year-old Mary Adler is a prodigy, although it’s only recently been discovered. Mary’s mother Diane was a mathematical genius. Pushed to scholarship by her own mother, Evelyn, Diane devoted much of her adult life to solving one of the Millennium Prize Problems, but ultimately killed herself. Mary lives with her uncle Frank, Diane’s brother. For the first seven years of Mary’s life, Frank has chosen to keep her at home, to provide her with a normal childhood. When he realizes that Mary needs more academic resources than he can provide, he enrolls her in a public school. When the school discovers her giftedness, life changes.  

     Mary’s grandmother Evelyn learns of Mary’s potential and tries to insert herself into the child’s life. Evelyn asserts that Frank is not pushing Mary hard enough, while Frank argues that Diane would have wanted Mary to have a normal childhood. Evelyn takes Frank to court, and at the advice of his lawyer, Frank agrees to a compromise. Mary will live in a foster home less than ½ hour away from Frank. When she turns 12, she can decide where she wants to live.   

     Mary is devastated to have to leave Frank. He has promised that she will not have to leave him, but Frank feels that this compromise is necessary to ensure his continued presence in her life. When Frank realizes that Evelyn is not complying with the terms of the agreement, he works out a new compromise that does a better job of honoring Mary’s need for a happy, child-like life while also cultivating her mathematical gifts.  

     Gifted raises interesting questions and themes that are relevant to what we do as social workers. Here are three reflections on the film.   

     Mary is gifted, but Frank is hesitant to push her to pursue her academic gifting. He believes such pressure, although good for her academic career, would be harmful to her overall well-being. I think the dilemma Frank faces is relevant to kids who are receiving rehabilitative services. As social workers, we work with clients who have gifts, but who also struggle or are disadvantaged in some way. I wonder if we ever create situations, like the one Frank fears, in which the well-intentioned services we offer are so numerous or time-consuming that the services themselves limit a client’s opportunities for carefree moments. It may be difficult to balance a client’s needs for services against the need for recreation, rest, and extracurricular activities. The balance will vary from client to client, and the balance for each client will vary from time to time, but we should be conscious of the tension between underserving and overserving, and try to find the best middle ground.   

     Mary is broken-hearted when she has to live with a foster family, and some of her feeling of betrayal comes because Frank has promised her that she won’t have to leave. Sometimes we want to assure our clients that everything will be okay. We hope for positive outcomes, and we want to help them avoid worry. We mean well, but it’s important that we don’t make promises we can’t keep, especially about things we can’t fully control. Our words carry weight because of our position, so clients might infer promises from things we say. We must be careful with our words. We can’t promise that a judge will make a desired ruling, but we can promise to be there with our client when the ruling is made. We can’t promise we will always be this client’s caseworker, but we can promise we will always care. We can’t promise that a parent will show up for a monitored visit, but we can promise that we will be there on time. Let’s choose our words carefully, and strive to make our words dependable.  

     Mary suffers grief when she is moved from Frank’s home. Frank is pained as he tries to make decisions in Mary’s best interest. Sometimes, social workers risk forgetting the human experience of the clients we serve. We can get bogged down in paperwork or politics, but lose sight of the individual experiences and perceptions of our clients. Mary and Frank could easily be on your caseload or mine. Gifted is an opportunity to think about our clients, not just clinically, but as individuals with thoughts, hopes, fears, and feelings. Our practice might not always be in line with our clients’ wishes. Sometimes, social workers have to remove children from dangerous situations, or deny benefits, or make other hard decisions, but if we keep our individual clients’ feelings, thoughts, and hopes in mind while we make those hard decisions, we will be better and more compassionate social workers.   

     I encourage you to watch Gifted through the eyes of a social worker, and consider these questions: How can you find the balance of serving clients effectively without overloading them? How can you make sure your words are fully dependable? How will our practice reflect our respect for the feelings and thoughts of each person we serve? 

Addison Cooper, LCSW, is the founder of Adoption at the Movies (http://www.AdoptionAtTheMovies.com). His book, Adoption at the Movies, is now available from Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Find it at: https://www.amazon.com/Adoption-Movies-Friendly-Nights-Talking/dp/1785927094/