Uma Viagem Extraordinária

Jeunet is, for once, operating outside his usual "comfort zone" and that's not a bad thing at all. While I have come to love him for his unique style, quirky colours, sharp textures and character actors caught by fisheye lenses, sometimes it pays to do something a little more restricted. As a comparison, Lynch's "Straight Story" comes to mind - a director known for decidedly non-mainstream sensibilities shoots a "simple" road movie. And since "The Straight Story" is my favourite Lynch film, that's no small praise! Of course, there's some of Jeunet's trademark whimsical, playful optics on screen, but they never become mere gimmicks but always enhance the storytelling. And some - or probably all - of the most impactful scenes are really simple shots - no gimmicks, no gags, just faces and landscapes. While Jeunet's last, "Micmacs", lost itself a bit among all the optical fireworks and gags, this film here keeps it straight and focused and I liked it only the better for it. Also, the pace is much slower than usual (again, very like "The Straight Story") - most scenes are longer than strictly necessary, giving them time to settle in.

The weakest point may be the actors - the children are not as good as those in "City of lost Children", and most of the grown-ups are a bit one-dimensional. The nice exception being Helena Bonham-Carter who delivers a really fine performance, nuanced like you wouldn't have thought she still had it in her after all the hammed-up roles from the last years.

Overall, probably my second-favourite Jeunet film (have seen it only once at the moment, maybe I'll have to rewrite it a bit after more viewings), highly recommended - and I really hope he does some more "mainstream" projects like this where his playfulness doesn't drown the story!

This film is very unusual for Jean-Pierre Jeunet because it's in English and is set in the United States. While he previously directed "Alien: Resurrection", his films are usually in his native language. However, like most of his movies, it is very strange and has a wonderfully unique sense of style that is pure Jeunet. It's hard to exactly describe this style—you just have to see it to believe and appreciate it. This oddness is actually what makes most of his films so wonderful.

As far as the film being set in America, I was not totally surprised by this—especially since a lot of the film is set in the American West. When I have visited France on several occasions, I was very surprised to see that many folks there were very fascinated with the old west and cowboys. The biggest shock was inside the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland Paris, as inside this mansion are, believe it or not, cowboys!

The film is about a very small and unique 10 year-old, T.S. Spivet (Kyle Catlett). T.S. is a strange child who is a lot like Dexter from "Dexter's Lab" or "Jimmy Neutron"—a boy genius with an intellect far, far in advance of his years. You learn just how smart he is when the boy receives a call from the Smithsonian Institution. It seems that the kid has received the very prestigious Baird Award for ingenuity and inventiveness. However, the folks have no idea T.S. is a child and naturally think he's an adult. After all, he's invented an amazing machine to demonstrate perpetual motion. When they invite T.S. to come to Washington to receive the award, he does something very strange—he accepts and never tells his parents. Instead, he treks from Montana to Washington! What's to become of this little prodigy? In addition to this main plot, there are subplots involving T.S.'s dead brother (who, oddly, appears to T.S. periodically throughout the film and has conversations with T.S.!) and his very quirky family.

This film has a somewhat slow and meandering pace that reminded me a bit of the recent Oscar-nominee, "Nebraska". Some may be put off my this or the strangeness of the characters, but to me this is what make this a wonderful and entertaining film. I appreciated the nice, low-key performance by Catlett and it's a nice testament to Jeunet that he was able to coax this out of the boy. Additionally, I really, really appreciated the uniqueness of the plot and way it was handled. Too often films seem awfully familiar, but this is certainly not the case with this nice film. Well worth seeing for audiences of all ages. This Jeunet film is much more normal than many of his films, but the style is definitely his. Additionally, like in so many of his films there is an appearance by Dominique Pinon—an actor that always seems to show up in Jeunet's movies. I appreciate this, as I have loved Pinon in many films —ranging from "Diva" to "Delicatessen".

It's easy to fall in love with this tale of the ingeniously, slightly magical story of The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet. The story is touching, and quite charismatic, and the little boy is presented as quite a believable genius. Without being presenting as being too intelligent or arrogant and thus putting the audience off. He's both intelligent and likable, and modest too. Whilst charming and witty it's not exactly funny. Then again it's not a comedy. Now this is not a bad thing, as the film works really well for it.

The film comes across as this little humble tale of something possibly real, and emotionally touching, whilst being both enlightening and saddening at times. Nothing like 'Home Alone' or any of those sorts of movies. It's just that I can see how to some, the film may be perceived as being somewhat bland, and in some ways yes, but for the most part no. You really will become greatly involved all the way throughout the movie. The cinematography is brilliant, as you would expect from Jean Pierre Jeunet, director of Amelie and Micmacs etc. It accompanies the magical style and point of view that T.S. Spivet holds, without overpowering the film as a whole. The screenplay is brilliant, really working off of the original books. In addition, every character feels essential. It doesn't waste time with characters unneeded, and feels much more compact for it. The story has many a twist and turn in store for you and will make you well up inside. The reason mainly being in the ending, where there is a major plot point, and we can feel every emotion possible from every single character, because by the end, you really have grown to love them. You've connected with them, and you feel for them. Slightly strange at times and brilliantly acted, to which, I see great things in-store for Kyle Catlett (T.S. Spivet). T.S. Spivet is definitely one to watch with the entire family. Prepare yourselves, hearts will be uplifted. There's only two flaws with this movie... some people may feel like it's not "entertaining" or "funny" enough, to which it's not supposed to be... It's touching, brilliant and a really adventure, (And do you know what, it's a little bit funny too). The second flaw, is that some of the characters are a little bit of a caricature, especially with the stereotypical police officer and Two Clouds just being thrown in for good measure, where they just act as fillers, however, as fillers go, they're still really good.

Final Grade: A-

Not quite Jeunet's best work, but it does the trick. Original and clever, and connects emotionally... and a little bit surreal. The Jean Pierre hat-trick has been successfully pulled off. A worthwhile watch.

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One might want to call this inevitable: that Jean-Pierre Jeunet, film's high priest of wild imagination, king of the bizarre and quirky, cinema's greatest child would end up making a film with a child protagonist. Jeunet found that protagonist in T.S. Spivet, the title character of Reif Larsen's best-selling novel about a boy burning with a passion for science, a keen observer of life with a strong will to leave his mark on the world and a dark secret. And even more so, he found him in Kyle Catlett, a small, frail blonde with piercing blue eyes, hesitant enthusiasm, an awake yet guarded mind, an infectious smile that is never sure of itself. For Catlett, Jeunet made the role younger, turning the book's twelve-year-old genius into an even more unlikely ten-year old through whose eyes he makes us see the world for those miraculous, mesmerizing, blissful 105 minutes.

And what a set of eyes they are: warm and loving, yet at the same time distant and objective, T.S. deconstructs the world in order to return it to order. As so often with Jeunet, he makes us look at the ordinary in an entirely new way. His hero's scientific glance transforms the everyday into miracles, makes the normal appear bizarre and vice versa. It is a look Jeunet had perfected in his masterpiece Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, better known shortly as Amélie. It is a world inhabited by quirky yet mostly lovable people: T.S.'s harassed mother (Helena Bonham Carter) who is obsessed with classifying insects, his quiet cowboy father Callum Keith Rennie, his entertainment addicted sister Gracie (Niamh Wilson). Jeunet paints them close to the caricaturesque, often adding an absurdist touch, a little too much color to make them appear brighter and clearer than life, only enhancing their humanity by turning the screw a little further.

Jeunet lets his hero narrate the story: how he, after his twin brother's fatal accident, sets out to improve the world through science, how he sets out to make his way to Washington, DC in order to pick up a prestigious science award. T.S.'s off voice provides distance, context, irony, humor – but above all imagination. Visually, Jeunet indulges in small imaginative transgressions of realism, giving the film a playful, exploratory feel that perfectly matches his protagonist. The borders between the real and the imagined are fluent, their realms overlapping rather than separated. The wideness of rural Montana is too beautiful to be true, it may be more a country of the mind, but for Jeunet this doesn't make it less real. For him, imagination is the true life force, what one can dream of must be true. So one might wonder that T.S. keeps encountering good and friendly and helpful people, meets little conflict and arrives safely and almost smoothly in Washington as if he was dreaming it. And maybe he is, maybe we are.

Just like every dream this one has to end. And so it does and the film fizzles out in a mixture of flashy media satire, crude anti-modernism and sentimental celebration of family values. The simple, somewhat quirky yet honest and lovable people on the one side, the falseness of the polished capitalist façade on the other. T.S., of course, returns into the loving arms of his family and escapes the cruel materialism of a world governed by fame, power and money. No doubt the end weakens the overall effect of the film – but cannot break it. For the power of human imagination it celebrates and visualizes, the playful anarchism it embodies, the shameless naïve optimism it upholds survive the crudeness and the one-dimensional caricature it ends up embracing. As the voice of T.S. Spivet prevails so does his spirit that calls on us to learn a new way of looking at world. Through observing eyes which believe that anything is possible as long as we can dream it. Imagine that.

The Young and Prodigious T.S Spivet is a breath of fresh Mid Western air among all the rubbish of cinema today. Its Charming without being overbearing, its smart without being technical and odd without being weird.

The cast do a really good job at acting and the playful (although unrealistic)characters are charming. The cinematography really explores small details as well as large. The props of vintage equipment and quirky items of the past will resonate with those who watch the film.

I think most people who see this film will leave feeling happier and will take note of the magic of life as T.S Spivet does. Its a pure escapist film. Watch and enjoy this little slice of movie magic with a with your favorite mug, blanket and good friend.