Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story

Plot

In 1987, Dr. Ben Carson travels to Ulm, Germany, to meet Peter and Augusta Rausch, whose twins are conjoined at the back of their heads. Carson believes he may be able to separate them but acknowledges the risk of losing one or both children. He agrees to operate after explaining the danger. During the four months he spends researching and planning the surgery, the film flashes back to 1961 in Detroit, Michigan, where 10-year-old Ben Carson is struggling in school.

His single mother, Sonya, who has only a third-grade education, is troubled by her sons' academic failures. She first requires Ben and his older brother Curtis to learn multiplication tables, and without their knowledge, she checks into a mental institution for depression. Upon returning, she limits them to two television shows per week and demands they read books and write reports, hiding that she is illiterate. Ben and Curtis learn from books, and within a year Ben rises from the bottom of his class to the top.

After an awards ceremony where Ben's teacher insults white classmates for performing worse than Ben, Sonya enrolls him in a predominantly black high school. There, Ben is bullied but makes peace through a yo mama joke battle. The bullies later give him a knife. Ben struggles with a violent temper, which climaxes when he threatens Sonya and nearly stabs a former bully; the blade hits the friend's belt buckle. Horrified, Ben runs home and prays to God for forgiveness, per his Seventh-day Adventist faith, and recovers.

Critical reception

The film received mostly positive reviews. Hal Boedeker of The Orlando Sentinel called it the perfect movie for a country challenged by its new president to do better. Ray Richmond of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the film is so good that a little immodesty is acceptable. John Maynard of The Washington Post criticized it as a treacly, plodding affair with awkward transitions and a syrupy soundtrack. The film won the Epiphany Prize for Inspiring Television, and Kimberly Elise won the Grace Award for Television at the 2010 Movieguide Awards.