The Great Gilly Hopkins (2016)
Rated PG
Starring Sophie Nelisse, Kathy Bates, Glenn Close, Octavia Spencer, Bill Cobbs, Zachary Hernandez, Clare Foley, Billy Magnussen,
Directed by Stephen Harek
The Story:
Gilly Hopkins (Nelisse) has bounced from one foster home to the next, always making herself unwanted by the family until they send her away. She's finally met her match in Maime Trotter (Bates) who is raising one little boy (Hernandez) and caring for her blind neighbor across the street (Cobbs). The more Gilly tries to get under Maime's skin, the more she fails. But her latest attempt to reunite with her mother (Stiles) may just blow up in her face.
Always hoping for an enjoyable family movie, many of kids books to movie translations turn out to be enjoyable enough for a viewing, but nothing I would need to see again, or even bother my family with.
This is where Gilly Hokins falls.
She is totally unlikable for at least the first half of the film, I even debated turning it off, that's how unlikable I found her to be.
I mean, it's not like we haven't seen this story in some form or another already:
unlikable person meets someone with a heart of gold who will melt that icy exterior and the two will bond and become a family.
The rest of the cast kept me interested, and I wanted to see if Gilly could be turned into a nicer person.
Spoiler... of course she can. ;)
Then it all comes crashing down with the arrival of Grandma (Close) and the stage is set for another conflict as Gilly was finally becoming part of a family, only to have that taken away from her as well.
Except this is the movies...based on a book... so there is a happy ending.
In real life, no way does the Grandma ever visit Maime Trotter's house again.
:)
Final Grade: C
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