Review of Little Man Tate

This is an odd little film about how we relate on different levels within a family that might seem strange to outsiders. A gifted child, Fred Tate (Adam Hann-Byrd) has some social difficulties mainly because he understands things that a child normally does not. His pragmatic mother Dede (Jodie Foster) is torn between wanting his gifts to develop and not making him feel isolated or strange. As it turns out, Fred cares less about this than Dede does and helps her understand why it's not important what others think of us, particularly when their opinions are rooted in ignorance. It reminds me of a quote made by Jodie: "Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from." Methinks that would be a good tagline for the film.