Little Man Tate

Jodie Foster plays the single mother of a child prodigy. Her son Fred (Adam Hann-Byrd) is discovered by an expert who tries to persuade Fred’s mother to let the child fulfil his potential. With Dianne Wiest and Harry Connick Jnr. Foster’s directorial debut.
Jodie Foster and Dianne Wiest star in Foster’s engaging directorial debut, Little Man Tate. Single mother Dede Tate is doing her best to raise her brilliant-but-lonely son Fred on a waitress’ salary. Jane Grierson (Wiest), something of an expert on being brilliant but lonely, spots Fred’s genius and wants to enrol him in her school for the gifted.
A simple story, but very well told. Foster and Wiest both give excellent, sensitive performances, conveying the selfishness in each characters desire to have Fred to herself, as well as the pain in not being able to fulfil all his needs on her own. Adam Hann-Byrd gives a remarkable performance as Fred, showing his intelligence without getting precious about it. Foster demonstrates 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, like when a pool game suddenly becomes a beautiful collision of lines and forces.