PG | 1h 39 min | Drama, Family | 1991
A sense of magic tinges most prodigies, yet Jodie Foster’s movie about a prodigy dwells on the mundane instead. How do parents, siblings, and friends relate to such children? How do such children relate to others? If they’re always made to feel abnormal, can they ever feel normal? If they behave adultlike at a tender age, can they ever enjoy childhood as the rest of us do?
The movie’s as much about the “little man” as it’s about the two women who care for him.
Working-class single-mother, Dede Tate (Jodie Foster, who also directs), raises her 7-year-old son, Fred (Adam Hann-Byrd), in loving awe of his superlative mathematical, reading, artistic, poetic, and musical abilities….