Vitus (2006)

Good movie but grossly overrated

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The life of a child prodigy is never an easy one, and six-year-old Vitus von Holzen is quite the child prodigy. With an I.Q. so off-the-charts it's been classified as "incalculable," Vitus is already such an accomplished pianist that he would give Mozart and Beethoven a run for their money in the musical genius sweepstakes. Vitus' parents are justifiably proud of their son and understandably intent on affording him every opportunity possible for him to fulfill his rare, God-given potential. But how is a boy supposed to have a "normal childhood" when he's eons ahead of his peers in intelligence and talent and when even his own teachers are intimidated by his knowledge? Small wonder he's an arrogant, precocious little brat long before he's reached puberty (he's already planning on attending college at age 13). Yet, at what point does a boy finally rebel against his "specialness" and seek the life of a "normal" child? Well, in a shocking turn of events, Vitus comes up with a way of doing just that."Vitus" is a superb German film that vividly captures the stress and strain of having an adult brain essentially trapped inside a child's psyche. But the movie also brings into focus the nonstop struggle the parents go through as they attempt to find a balance between nurturing and cultivating the child's talents, on the one hand, and not making a psychological wreck of him on the other. And how much of their obsession with the child's gift really just comes down to the glory he reflects back on them as parents? And whose dreams are they really trying to fulfill through his success anyway, his or their own?Brilliantly written by Peter Luisi, Lukas B. Suter and Fredi M. Murer, and solidly directed by Murer, "Vitus" takes us into a world we don't often visit in the movies - that of the mysteries of the intellect - and does so with ingenious plotting, complex characterizations and outstanding performances by a wonderful cast. Julika Jenkins and Urs Jucker are excellent as the parents who certainly mean well but who don't always act in the best interest of their child, while Bruno Gans provides a strong emotional focal point as the loving grandfather who is the one person in Vitus' life who provides him with a safe place where he can live life without pressure and just be a normal kid. The two young actors who play Vitus - Fabrizio Borsani at six and Teo Gheorghiu at twelve - don't hit a single false note in their portrayals of a character who is half grownup and half temperamental child.Nobody is a hero or a villain in this film; they're just well-intentioned individuals trying to work their way through an unusual and challenging situation without making a total mess of everything in the process.The script does lose its way a bit in the second half, wandering too far into wish-fulfillment fantasy and the arcane muddle of big business deal-making and stock portfolios for its own good, but that's a small enough flaw in a movie that otherwise provides an abundance of inarguable virtues.

It is an open secret that Swiss German movies are almost unknown outside of Europe and that they seldom or never win Oscars. Well understood, I speak here about movies in Swiss German language. Swiss German is by most Americans not even recognized as German; for Americans who have traveled to Europe, it sounds like Austrian, which is does not at all, in reality. Therefore, it does not astonish either, that most Americans do not know that there was a time when Swiss German movies were en vogue, this was in the 50ies and in the early 60ies. Even before, in the 30ies and 40ies, there was a time when it looked like Swiss German movies would reach international standards in the near future.But unfortunately, except some highlights like "Bäckerei Zürrer", "Hinter den sieben Gleisen" or "Dällebach Kari" by Kurt Früh, "Ueli der Knecht" and "Ueli der Pächter" by Franz Schnyder (which are available in Japan, but not in the US), "Die plötzliche Einsamkeit des Konrad Steiner" by Kurt Gloor (all available in region-bound, non-subtitled dvds for horribly high prices in Switzerland), Swiss movies are not reaching the standards of other European states. And now comes Vitus which has been nominated for Oscar, from a film director who has made not much more than a handful of feature-length movies. How does this movie fit into the Swiss film tradition? For everybody who knows the movies that I have mentioned above, the structure of "Vitus" is not unknown: it is a movie that belongs to the fairytale-genre introduced by Kurt Früh fifty and more years ago. Vitus, the "wunderkind" who plays most difficult sonatas before he is 10 years old, is ready to graduate from high school with 12 and earns with his own company millions and millions of Swiss Franks by stock-exchange - this is not so different from the miraculous fate of the poor and miserably living family Caduff to whom the wizard comes in the person of the realty-owner Mr. Frehner who gives them for free a luxury-apartment on the Nob Hill of Zurich and turns them from gypsies to winners of the post-war-time in "Es Dach überem Chopf". However, there is a huge difference between "Vitus" and the old Kurt Früh-movies: the ladder are social-critique, the Vitus is not, but stays on the surface. Instead, we learn about the desolate status of today's Swiss German which is mixed up with American lumps. Above all, "Vitus" simply lacks its anchoring in today's Swiss society - as Kurt Früh's movies were strongly anchored in the Zurich society of the 50ies and 60ies. Although we see Vitus' father and, shortly, his mother, at work, the family stays isolated from the rest of Zurich's society. For example, we do not even see any neighbors in or around the house in Wipkingen, where the family von Holzen lives. All the encounters of Vitus and his family stand under the appearances of wonders that will happen, not under actual social interplay. The movie, therefore, is a nice and entertaining story about a fictive little boy, but not more and settles, compared to Kurt Früh's movies, on a much deeper level than it had been reached in Swiss film culture already at the end of the fifties.

How many movies have you watched that were made in Switzerland? Well, this one was and seems to be favorably received. The user comments here are almost all filled with plaudits for the film. I agree, with a few reservations.Although I enjoyed the movie and was pretty entertained by it, I thought it got a little carried away in the last 40 minutes or so and all credibility went flying out the window. First, the good news: all the characters were interesting and the story had a unique twist to it, one that I doubt anyone could see coming. I won't say what it is, but just don't expect the normal "child prodigy" story.Many scenes in the final third of the movie, I thought, got too unrealistic. A 12-year-old boy gone for hours - at an expensive condo he bought unknown to his parents, at expensive restaurants, pulling all of kinds of business deals with background checks, climbing up into an airplane with nobody seeing him? - on and on. There are just too many scenes that have huge holes in them like, well, Swiss cheese. In addition, the kid is obnoxious many times and the parents unrealistic. I felt more than a touch of elitism thrown into this story.I think the oddest part of the film was the mother speaking English about every fifth sentence. What's up with that? Still, I think many people will enjoy this movie because the story, even with the holes, is still entertaining enough to sit through, which is more than you can say for a lot of two-hour films.

it is said that 6 year old Vitus actually plays... Well - he does not in the dancing scene with the "babyseatter". It is actually embarrassing to watch the poor kind playing clown as told by the director. There are many more things which no director yet mastered to show properly.. it is to do with the "feel" of timing. That is obvious when Vitus finds out the padlock (at air port) locked... But hey....the director must make sure that the kid pulls this padlock few times with the camera closed up on the padlock so the "slowest" from the audience actually "gets it" that the the padlock is locked. Minus 15 points for the director on this. The kid plays piano "life" and this can not be denied.. Something not too often offered to watch in movies. Here is my 7 points justification. But - as a 12 years old - he tackles very difficult piece by Franz List only to practice (much later in the movie) a very basic,the very beginners drill by Carl Cherny...Worse of all... Mother claims not to be a pianist but she is giving a lesson to already then well fledged pianist. That is something i could not stop laughing at. Vitus at 6 years old is pathetic as he should be expected to be at that age. However the 12 years old Vitus does a good job. I did not see too clearly that he "wants to be normal" any other way than by his own brief comment about it:-). Although nothing new in the movie from what had already been shown in thousands of other movies - this movie is not a markedly "oversweetened" work and the true play of a child is something very refreshing to watch after all those "circus clown like" kids from Hollywood in most other movies about "genious" kids. To sum up: First part of Vitus at 6 is way below any value. Second part of Vitus 12 repairs the damage to the point that the movie is well worth watching...(once).