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.