We’ve seen more than a few movies about single parents trying to give a gifted child a normal life. Some have been brilliant; others have been awful.
Gifted isn’t brilliant, but it’s got heart, and a few tweaks to what might otherwise have been a completely formulaic exercise.
Continue reading Gifted Isn’t As Brilliant As Mary But It’s Still Pretty Bright!
When the British mini-series Traffik first aired, it was a revelation. It shook governments and individuals alike with its depiction of how simple it was to manufacture heroin – and how all-pervasive the drug was becoming. It was so well done that it also won an International Emmy and three BAFTA Awards. Eleven years later, Steven Soderberg’s movie, Traffic – based on the mini-series – won an Oscar for Best Picture.
The mini-series follows a number of threads: poppy farming and the manufacture of heroin in Pakistan; the British housewife of a German businessman who has been arrested for smuggling drugs; how drugs affect the family of a British Minister.
John Lithgow [Bill Paterson] is the Minister for the Home Office and we follow him from the point where he is visiting Pakistan to learn about the drug trade and how British aid is used [or not] to help poppy farmers switch to another, less deadly crop. During his arc, he discovers that his daughter, Caroline [Julia Ormond], is a heroin addict.