Credits
Distributed by
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Production companies
TSG Entertainment
FilmNation Entertainment
Grade A Entertainment
DayDay Films
Directed by
Marc Webb
Be
Written by
Tom Flynn
Produced by
Karen Lunder
Andy Cohen
Starring
Chris Evans
Mckenna Grace
Lindsay Duncan
Jenny Slate
Octavia Spencer
Cinematography
Stuart Dryburgh
Edited by
Bill Pankow
Music by
Rob Simonsen
Synopsis
In St. Petersburg, Florida, seven-year-old Mary Adler lives with her uncle and de facto guardian, Frank. Her best friend is her 43-year-old neighbor, Roberta Taylor. On her first day of first grade, she shows remarkable mathematical talent, which impresses her teacher, Bonnie Stevenson. There, despite her initial disdain for average children her own age and her boredom with their classwork, Mary begins to bond with them when she brings her one-eyed cat, Fred, for show-and-tell. Later, she defends a classmate from a bully on the school bus by hitting the bully in the face. After the incident, the principal encourages Frank to send Mary to a private school for gifted children, offering the opportunity of a scholarship. However, Frank turns it down. Based on his family's experiences with similar schools, he fears she will not have a chance at a "normal" childhood. It emerges that Mary's mother, Diane, had been a promising mathematician, dedicated to the Navier-Stokes problem (one of the unsolved Millennium Prize Problems) before dying by suicide when Mary was six months old. She has lived with Frank, a former college professor turned boat repairman, ever since. The principal contacts Frank's estranged mother and Mary's maternal grandmother, Evelyn, who seeks to gain custody of Mary and move her to Massachusetts. Evelyn believes she is a "one-in-a-billion" mathematical prodigy who should be specially tutored in preparation for a life devoted to mathematics, much as Diane was. However, Frank is adamant that his sister would want Mary to be in a normal public school and have the childhood she did not have. In court, Frank argues that Evelyn's parenting deprived Diane of a normal life; Evelyn had sent away a boy Diane was in love with, which was when she first attempted suicide. Evelyn argues that Frank is in no position to be a guardian, working a low-paying job without health insurance. Worried the judge will rule against him and he will lose Mary completely, Frank accepts a compromise brokered by his lawyer that sees Mary placed in foster care and attend the private school where Evelyn wants to have her enrolled. The foster parents live 25 minutes from Frank's home, he will be entitled to scheduled visits, and Mary will be able to decide where she wants to live after her 12th birthday. Mary is devastated at being placed in foster care, and her foster father says she refuses to see Frank. When Bonnie sees a picture of Fred up for adoption, she alerts Frank. He retrieves the cat from the pound and, learning that Fred was brought in due to allergy issues, realizes that Evelyn, who is allergic to cats, is overseeing Mary's education in the guest house of Mary's foster home. Frank then reveals to Evelyn, who had been a mathematician herself, that Diane had solved the Navier-Stokes problem but stipulated that the solution was to be withheld until Evelyn's death. Knowing that it meant everything to her to see Diane solve the problem, he offers her the opportunity to publish Diane's work if she drops her objection to him having custody of Mary. Evelyn agrees.
The film ends with Mary back in the custody of Frank, returning to public school and socializing with children her age while taking college-level courses.