Jodie Foster and Dianne Wiest star in Foster's engaging directorial debut. Single mom Dede Tate is doing her best to raise her brilliant-but-lonely son Fred on a waitress's salary. Jane Grierson (Wiest), something of an expert on being brilliant but lonely, spots Fred's genius and wants to enroll him in her school for the gifted. It's a simple story, but it is very well told. Foster and Wiest both give excellent, sensitive performances, conveying the selfishness in each character's desire to have Fred to herself as well as the pain in not being able to fulfill all his needs on her own. Adam Hann-Byrd gives a remarkable performance as Fred, showing his intelligence without getting precious about it. Foster already shows a steady directing hand, but the best moments are the more whimsical ones in which she reveals the quiet exhilaration of Fred's mental leaps, as when a pool game suddenly becomes a beautiful collision of lines and forces. The DVD version shows the film in its original widescreen format and includes commentary from Foster. --Ali Davis
2.
Fred, a seven-year-old art, music and math prodigy, is ostracized by his classmates who view him as something of a freak. His only companion is his warm-hearted, working-class mom. A single woman raising her son alone, she has neither the money nor the education to nurture her son's gift. Invited to attend a summer college course, Fred goes to live with a child psychologist and teacher who has taken an interest in him. Though the woman is excited by Fred's genius, she is unable to provide him with the loving, emotionally supportive environment he found at home.
3.
Jodie Foster (The Accused) "makes an impressive directorial debut" (Tribune Media Services) with Scott Frank's (Out of Sight, Get Shorty) compelling and bittersweet screenplay about a child prodigy caught in the harsh spotlight of fame. Starring two-time Oscar® winners Foster and Dianne Wiest, Little Man Tate is a "stirring and magnificent portrait of the human spirit" (The Hollywood Reporter)!
Fred Tate (Adam Hann-Byrd) is a gifted pianist, a math genius, an incredible artist… and he's only seven years old. But this child prodigy is also adrift. Shunned by his peers and bored by his schoolwork, Fred is stifled by his environment. Desperate to encourage his potential, yet afraid he'll miss out on a normal childhood, his single mom Dede (Foster) reluctantly allows a psychologist (West) to enroll Fred in a school for exceptional children. But when he's rushed headlong into academia, Dede's worst fears are realized - Fred is more isolated and alone than ever. And it's up to Dede to become what little Freddy's been looking for all along… a Mom.
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