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VITUS
Directed by: Fredi M. Murer.
Produced by: Christian Davi, Christof Neracher & Fredi M. Murer.
Written by: Peter Luisi, Murer & Lukas B. Suter.
Director of Photography: Pio Corradi.
Edited by: Myriam Flury.
Music by: Mario Beretta.
Released by: Sony Pictures Classics.
Language: German & English with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Switzerland. 123 min. Rated PG.
With: Teo Gheorghiu, Bruno Ganz, Julika Jenkins, Urs Jucker, Fabrizio Borsani, Tamara Scarpellini & Kristina Lykowa.

The first half of Vitus crosses Shine with The Tin Drum, featuring a stubborn musical child prodigy pressured by a parent living vicariously through his talents. But the second half moves into a delightful exploration, just barely skirting fantasy, of whiz kid power.

Vitus not only has extraordinary musical ability, he is an all-around gifted child, portrayed at age six by adorable Fabrizio Borsani and then by real-life 12-year-old musical prodigy Teo Gheorghiu, who expressively plays Bach, Liszt, Ravel, Schumann, etc., onscreen and on the soundtrack. He gets kicked out of kindergarten and then public school for making his fellow students uncomfortable and his teachers look stupid. Additionally, his parents (Julika Jenkins and Urs Jucker) talk to him like an adult, dress him in suits, and show him off at a cocktail party for dad’s bosses.

At times, Vitus’s trantrums seem like he’s turning into The Omen’s Damien or a Midwich cuckoo from Village of the Damned, but all he really wants is to be treated like a normal kid. He only feels this way with two people, his indulgent grandfather, Bruno Ganz in a charming role written especially for him, and his babysitter Isabel (at age 12 played by Kristina Lykowa), who introduces him to rock ‘n’ roll and rebellion before his shocked mother fires her.

In an empowering twist, Vitus uses his superior intelligence to make his family’s dreams come true – but on his terms. With imaginative stratagems and amused adult co-conspirators, he secretly sets up a modern prodigy’s version of a tree house – a skyscraper office with a grand piano, piles of CDs, and sophisticated computer and phone equipment, somewhat like the home-schooled 14-year-old stock trader described in a recent Wall Street Journal article. But on an awkward date, his seductive argument on the statistical advantages of an older woman being with a younger guy fails to impress a nonplussed Isabel (now 19 and played by Tamara Scarpellini), who thinks that sex is more than “exchanging DNA.” He learns an invaluable life lesson about love he can maturely pour into his piano playing, and from a piano legend that “Music comes from the soul.”

The message – “How is there a way for a child to escape from a world for which he is too intelligent?” – is sprinkled in gently. Though the film is harsh on the mother, who has no goals of her own and spirals into depression when she thinks her son is only normal, Vitus entertainingly presents a generational progression from a grandfather working with his hands, to a father working with his mind, and a child going a step further into a virtual reality that trumps them all.

Vitus has a wider appeal beyond classical music fans to parents and educators mulling over the difficulties of no child left ahead. If youngsters are comfortable reading subtitles (even with the usual white-on-white problem, though the mother occasionally speaks English) and have patience through the slower first half, they will also root for Vitus. Nora Lee Mandel
June 29, 2007