"Vitus" is a Swiss film (in German with subtitles) that I saw at SIFF. The movie is about a young piano prodigy, title character Vitus--actually I should really just say prodigy since his talents include academics and chess as well as music. About half the film covers when he is six, and the rest covers when he is 12. Vitus is an interesting movie because it starts off as a fairly typical movie about a young prodigy (you've seen it before: the family struggles to come to grip with how much to push the prodigy to realize his gift vs. letting him have a normal childhood) but then takes a really sharp right turn during the second half. It almost reminded me of the shocker in "Million Dollar Baby." Fortunately, the change is handled more smoothly in "Vitus" and the movie holds together fairly well as a whole, whereas I felt that "Million Dollar Baby" felt like two different movies awkwardly stitched together.
It's the post-shocker 2nd half that really made me like Vitus. The first half is pretty much just a reasonably well done prodigy movie, but the second half wanders into areas I've never seen before in a prodigy movie, and has some really great moments and surprises. Another strength of "Vitus" is the soundtrack. If you're a fan of classical piano music, which I am, hearing Vitus's various performances is great. If you like the idea of a sweet movie about a young prodigy with some major surprises and twists, you'll love "Vitus."
Final Grade: A
Thursday, February 14, 2008
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