Gigi & Nate (2022)

Gigi & Nate is a 2022 American coming-of-age drama film directed by Nick Hamm from a screenplay by David Hudgins. The film was loosely inspired by a book by Ellen Rogers, Kasey to the Rescue: The Remarkable Story of a Monkey and a Miracle. In 2006, Roger's disabled son worked with an organisation that paired monkeys with disabled people to provide help. The film was released in the United States on September 2, 2022, by Roadside Attractions.

Plot

Nate Gibson collapses shortly after diving into a lake at his family's Fourth of July weekend party in their summer place in the fictional town of Happy Days, North Carolina. He is in such bad condition that his mother, Claire, insists that he be airlifted to a hospital in Nashville, Tennessee.

There, they diagnose Nate with meningitis. His brain is swelling, causing him to have constant seizures. His big sister Katy sternly tells him that he does not have permission to die.

Four years later, still living in Nashville, Nate has survived and is quadriplegic. He falls into a deep depression and tries to commit suicide. Claire contacts Cebus, an organization that trains animals to be service animals, and they give Nate a capuchin named Gigi as an emotional support animal.

At the Gibsons', Gigi quickly accepts her new living space but takes longer to come out and interact physically with Nate. Katy comes home from college and disapproves. The family dog, Banjo, gets loose, chasing Gigi and leaving the house a mess. Nate overhears Claire and his dad Dan argue over him and Gigi, so he says they might as well return her. To the surprise of Nate's caretakers, Gigi starts to help him with his rehabilitation exercises, giving him a pick-me-up.

As Gigi accompanies Nate on excursions into town, a local animal rights activist takes video footage of the two at a grocery store. Then he again meets Lori, the young woman he had met the day he had contracted meningitis. She invites them both to a college drinking party, and as he has a large Instagram following, a video taken there goes viral.

The animal rights group Americans For Animal Protection (AFAP) holds a protest outside the Gibsons' home, threatening to fight to make it illegal for capuchins to become service animals. They are granted a hearing to propose the ban. Despite Nate speaking up for the primates, the ruling goes in favor of AFAP 2–1, meaning he will have to give up Gigi.

As Nate's mother throws out Gigi's cage, his grandmother finds an article about North Carolina allowing capuchins as service animals. The family opts to move back there so that Nate can keep Gigi. A year later, during a Fourth of July barbecue at their new home, Nate reveals that he got a full-ride acceptance to a college that will allow him to use Gigi as his service animal.

Cast

Charlie Rowe as Nate Gibson

Marcia Gay Harden as Claire Gibson, Nate's mother

Josephine Langford as Katy Gibson, Nate's older sister

Hannah Alligood as Annabelle Gibson, Nate's younger sister

Jim Belushi as Dan Gibson, Nate's father

Diane Ladd as Nate's grandmother

Zoe Colletti as Lori

Olly Sholotan as Benji Betts

Production

Principal photography for Gigi & Nate began on March 29, 2021, in Los Angeles. In May 2021, it was reported that filming also took place in North Carolina and that Marcia Gay Harden, Charlie Rowe, Josephine Langford, Zoe Colletti, Hannah Alligood, Jim Belushi, and Diane Ladd would star. Filming concluded on May 29, 2021. The film was released on September 2, 2022.

Reception

Box office

The film was released alongside Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. and made $990,279 from 1,184 theaters in its opening weekend, and a total of $1.3 million over the four-day Labor Day frame. 65% of the audience was female, 67% was over the age of 35, and 64% was white.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 16% based on 31 reviews, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "There's no denying Gigi & Nate's good intentions -- but it's also impossible to ignore this cloying drama's clunky execution." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on seven critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by PostTrak gave the film an 81% overall positive score, with 60% saying they would definitely recommend it.

Animal welfare concerns

The film was criticized by animal welfare groups such as Born Free USA and PETA for falsely portraying primates as service animals, inadvertently fueling the trade in pet monkeys. Born Free's Devan Schowe noted:[S]cenes that convey moments of compassion and empathy towards Nate were largely filmed using the animated version of Gigi, while Allie, the real-life "actor" capuchin, appears in scenes that communicate aggression and frustration... [I]n order to tell the story the filmmakers want to tell – about the emotional connection between Nate and Gigi – the scenes of closeness between human and wild animal had to be fabricated using animation.

References

External links

Official website

Gigi & Nate at IMDb