Movie Box Review

When A GIFTED MAN came onto the scene, it had all the high-class auspices a new series could want.  The pilot was directed by Academy Award-winner Jonathan Demme, was written by Susannah Grant (Eric Brockovich) and had a cast that included such strong actors as Patrick Wilson, Jennifer Ehle, Margo Martindale (who, by the time the series premiered, had won a spectacularly-deserved Emmy for the previous season's Justified) and Pablo Schreiber; its main changes post-pilot were to add ER/SVU veteran Neal Baer as showrunner, and bring another bright talent, Rachelle Lefevre, to the cast.  The basic concept--high-powered Manhattan surgeon is haunted by the chatty ghost of his do-gooder ex-wife, and gradually becomes a better and more charitable man--combined the medical genre with "A Christmas Carol" in a way that seemed promising.

And yet... Gifted Man never really worked, and now it's a longshot for renewal by CBS.  Returning to the show for its last episodes of the season, one could see that despite the tepid reception and low ratings, very little about the show had changed since its debut.  Every week, Michael Holt (Wilson) would face twin medical crises, one at his posh uptown offices and the other at the free clinic his ex-wife Anna (Ehle) had founded, where he was now reluctantly providing his services (reluctant, that is, until the case of the week passionately engaged him).  At some point, Anna would show up and chatter commentary on Michael's continued emotional blockage, invariably provoking "Huh?  Who you talking to, Doc?' reactions from those standing nearby when Anna appeared.  And although they bickered, Michael would share love-that-cannot-be looks with the unhappily married Dr. Kate Sykora (Lefevre), who had replaced Anna at the clinic.  

The season finale didn't go out of its way to be terribly extra-dramatic.  When Michael encountered the woman who had inherited Anna's transplanted heart, and the woman died in a car accident, there may have been the suggestion that the final loss of her heart might send Anna away for good, but it was kept vague.  And the possibility of Michael and Kate becoming an actual couple (they had kissed in the previous episode) was put off for another indefinite time, as Kate and her husband decided to work on their marriage some more.

Gifted Man wasn't--isn't--a terrible show, and in fact not worse than some of the procedurals safely ensconced on CBS' air.  It's limited, though, by its supernatural conceit, because it turned out that there wasn't much for Anna to do except kibbitz for a few minutes in each episode.    The show might be better off jettisoning Anna if it somehow survives to a second season, and becoming a straightforward medical show.  But one can't argue all that strongly for it--despite its pedigree, there's nothing about A Gifted Man that's become distinctive or memorable.  It's probable that shinier pilots will come to light during pilot season, and Gifted Man's talent will survive to work another day somewhere else.

The ghost who returns from beyond to make someone a better person is a archetype that goes back to Dickens and beyond.  In the right hands, it can produce high-class hokum, and that's certainly the case with CBS's pilot for A GIFTED MAN, although as a continuing series its prospects are more dubious.


In Susannah Grant's script (she wrote Erin Brockovich and the underrated In Her Shoes), the "gift" of the title has two meanings:  the medical talents of genius neurosurgeon Michael Holt (Patrick Wilson), and--as we're told in an excruciating burst of expository dialogue by Michael's sister Christina (Julie Benz)--the fact that he's being haunted by the ghost of his ex-wife Anna (Jennifer Ehle).  Anna, when she was among the living, was a saintly physician who toiled for the poor, most recently at a free clinic in the Bronx; now that she's deceased, she wants Michael to get in touch with his better nature and share his high-powered practice with the less fortunate.  There's little doubt that he'll do so, and will in turn become less of a brusque, superficial human being and a kinder, better brother to Christina and surrogate dad to her troubled son.

TV is a medium of writer/producers more than directors, but not every pilot has a world-class artist like Jonathan Demme behind the camera.  Demme created such films as Silence of the Lambs, Something Wild, Philadelphia and Rachel Getting Married, and his crisp, matter-of-fact handling of the supernatural in Gifted Man gives it a persuasiveness it might otherwise not have. The show's casting is terrific, not just Wilson, Ehle and Benz, but the wonderful Margo Martindale (who should win the Emmy for her Justified performance this past season) as Michael's chief of staff, down to guest stars like Bill Irwin.  The production design looks great, and the pilot moves swiftly through its expected paces as Michael first resists and then accepts Anna's presence in his life.

A Gifted Man could have been a very effective movie; as a series, though, it's all too clear where the story is going.  Since it's been established that Anna is haunting Michael, that he's going to allow her into his life and, encouraged by her, he's going to help the poor and generally improve the lives of those around him, every episode is likely to be more of the same, with Michael reluctantly saving lives at Anna's request, due to his chaste, profound love for her.  Whatever edge the pilot has is likely to be lost, and the pilot doesn't suggest where future conflicts may arise, apart from Michael's attempts to keep his conversations with the invisible Anna secret.

The series isn't in a particularly tough time slot:  on Fridays at 8, it'll face B-level reality shows in Kitchen Nightmares and Extreme Makeover:  Home Edition, as well as the last 13 episodes of Chuck.  The show fits the profile of the CBS Medium/Ghost Whisperer audience, so there's no reason it shouldn't find a place for itself (Mitch Metcalf's projection has it in 4th place, but all the slot's shows are within a tightly-packed few tenths of one another), although with the production values of the pilot, it'll be a pricey show on a low-rated night .  The bigger question is:  can A Gifted Man find enough creative purpose to stay among the living?

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