Vitus, He Said

If children are a blessing and a curse in our lives, than a child like Vitus is a child plus. He exposes his genius when is given a toy keyboard as a birthday gift. In the video of the birthday party, we see his mother amazement when Vitus takes the toy and begins playing it without a thought.

But his talents are not limited to music and while he takes joy in his ability to play beautiful music, both classical and popular, he has an uneasy feeling about his parents pushing him to excel. His first major rebellion occurs when they drop his piano teacher for enrollment in a music academy. What the director wants us to see is that while Vitus is a music prodigy he is in every way a little boy. He has special bond with his grandfather. As depicted in the film this bond is born from his grandfather's ability to to see the little boy in Vitus and nurture his need to grow up at his own speed.

The second big face off with mom and dad occurs when they fire his babysitter, Isabel. At this point Vitus has a huge crush on her and, as it turns out, a continuing affection for her. To express his anger, he simply locks his parents out of the apartment while he fakes an inability to hear their begging and pounding, while he plays the piano.

The problem I have with this film is that Vitus is the solution to all problems. He saves Isabel from a less than satisfactory relationship, he saves his fathers business career and he saves his grandfather from poverty. In doing this he provides everyone, including himself, with the key to happiness. This is an example of the age old tale of what happens when bad things happen to good people. It's just stretching the limits of fantasy to think that a young boy, no matter how brilliant, could be the solution.

That being said, this film is well presented and is entertaining. It is worth seeing if you can get past the precocious child being the saviour in all situations. The young actor who plays Vitus as a teen is competent and compelling. The parents are portrayed as good people who have lost their focus and the actors do a good job of portraying that. Grandpa is eloquently played by the legendary German actor, Bruno Ganz.

This film closes with one of my most unfavorite scenes. That is the scene where everyone gathers to honor the hero. It can be the courtroom or an assembly in the school, but in almost all cases, the scene is contrived and phony. In this case, I loved it. But I can't tell you why, because it would spoil the film for you.

Mostly Martha, He Said

In the German film, "Mostly Martha", Martha is a Chef that is anal retentive about her food, it's preparation and presentation. We also soon become aware that she has no life outside her kitchen. However, it's not the Martha that probably comes to the American film viewer's mind.

This Martha is the head chef in a fine German restaurant. By her own admission she has worked very hard to get to the position she is in and feels extremely comfortable with her standards. Much to the discomfort of the owner, she finds it easy to tell off a fastidious, but singularly stupid customer, that he doesn't know anything about food and she wouldn't mind if they didn't eat her cooking, if they can't appreciate it.

Her sister, as single mom, dies in an accident and Martha is forced to take care of her eight year old niece, Lina. Martha, while well intentioned, is ill prepared to deal with an eight year old, particularly one that is angry, confused and traumatized by the loss of her only parent.

There is a solution here. Martha is aware that the father is an Italian man, but knows only his first name, Giuseppe. Lina wants Martha to find her birth-father. Lina has the typical abandon childs fantasy about him. While she searches, Martha goes through the problems that any parent has, taking a difficult child to school, finding someone to watch her while she works and getting her to eat the right food.

Than there is the problem of Martha's employer hiring another cook to "help" Martha through her difficult times. Martha doesn't think she needs help and views the new cook, Mario, as competition. We get the feeling Mario is going to be problems in Martha's, now all of a sudden, topsy turvy world. Instead Mario acts as a calming influence in the kitchen, in Martha's relationship with Lina and finally with Martha herself.

This romantic comedy was the basis for a new American film, "No Reservations", starring Catherine Zeta-Jones. I have not seen this film and under normal circumstances I would not. Sorry, I'm no fan of Catherine Zeta-Jones nor American romantic comedies. Both are too predictable and formula driven to be interesting to me. However, the opportunity to compare and contrast will motivate me to rent, "No Reservations" when it is released on DVD.