Sara Colangelo directs Maggie Gyllenhaal, Parker Sevak and Rosa Salazar in this drama where a frustrated teacher begins to exploit one of her 5 year old’s uncommon talent for poetry.

A complex and captivating central performance by the ever gorgeous Gyllenhaal motors this small scale affair. What starts as a twee and sunny character study lurches into darker places, the filmmakers intelligently pull the plug on the narrative as the bad choices become almost unbearably tragic.

7