This post is a part of an ongoing project in which I watch one movie from a different country every other week.

PLOT: A twelve-year-old piano prodigy with overly protective parents decides to escape his suffocating life and (with the help of his grandfather) attempts to become a “normal” boy.

MEMORABLE MOMENT: Flying is a major theme throughout the film. Early in the movie, Vitus’ grandfather constructs a wooden glider in the shape of a bat (the boy’s favorite animal). The glider is large and impressive but is clearly not meant to support a passenger.

Years later (about a third of the way through the movie), Vitus has a brutal argument with his mother. That night, he rises from his bed, takes the beloved glider off the wall, and steps onto the apartment’s balcony. A violent storm rages outside. Rain and wind beat his face as he leans over the railing.

We don’t see what happens next, but some time later his mother wakes and enters her son’s room. She finds the door to the balcony is still open. The storm is still blowing. She cautiously leans over the edge and finds her son on the ground lying beside the broken glider.  

IDEAL AUDIENCE The “troubled genius” is a familiar archetype in countless films that range from A Beautiful Mind to Amadeus to Iron Man 3. They tend to be characters who are brilliant at art or science but fail when it comes to basic human interaction. These movies often contain more scenes in which the “heroes” drink heavily or experience nervous breakdowns than scenes where the characters are actually practicing or studying. These geniuses are often rude and spiteful but are just as often forgiven because, you know, they’re geniuses.

The movie Vitus portrays a much gentler version of the troubled genius story in part because our hero is only twelve years old (not that there aren’t some very troubling films about young people). Vitus (played by actual piano prodigy Teo Gheorghiu) never has a psychotic break from reality, but he does act out in ways we would expect from a child overwhelmed by such an impressive gift. He locks his mother out of their apartment and spends hours playing the piano while she bangs on the door. He manages to memorize how to fly and then steals an airplane  – don’t worry, just a small one, not a commercial airliner. He pretty much does whatever he wants behind his parent’s back, often with his loving grandfather’s blessing. 

While there are plenty of gritty or even disturbing movies about “tragic geniuses,” Vitus’ story generally contains a fairly light mood. There are some very dramatic moments but over the course of the film the story becomes more and more comedic until it reaches the point that it strains reality. While I’ll buy that a boy with such an astronomical IQ could easily outsmart most adults, I have trouble believing that he would be able to solve his father’s company’s financial difficulties in a matter of hours simply on a whim. There are many scenes throughout the movie (especially in its later half) where the film literally flies away from reality and enters the realm of a light-hearted family film. While this isn’t what I was expecting, I don’t necessarily mean this comment as a criticism. 

I wouldn’t go so far as to call Vitus a “kid’s movie” but it certainly is more so than many of the films I have written about for this series. A lot of young people (ten years or older) will get a kick out of the film and its main character who is constantly outsmarting the adults around him, something most kids will enjoy. My only reservation is that the first 20 minutes or so follow Vitus as a very young boy and many of these scenes are focused on his parents and their difficulties. Some kids may find this stretch boring, but if they can get through it I think they’ll find the remaining hour and forty minutes very entertaining.  

Overall, Vitus gives us a much lighter touch on a familiar (if not entirely predictable) story. While the movie has its dark moments (see my Memorable moment above – *spoiler alert for concerned parents* it wasn’t a real suicide attempt) there is also a lot of fun and heart here to. I don’t know if the makers of Vitus set out to create a film for families to gather around and enjoy, but they seemed to have stumbled into one.  

DIRECTOR: Fredi M. Murer

WRITER: Peter Luisi, Fredi M. Murer and Lukas B. Suter

STARING: Teo Gheorghiu, Julika Jenkins and Urs Jucker