Watch The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet For Free

Overrated

An Exercise In Nonsense

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

If the point of any narrative work of art is to make me sympathize with the human problems of a character, this movie is a failure . The story is of a child who killed his brother accidentally, and there is plenty to sympathize with there, it may seem. A family torn apart, a tragedy that goes unnamed, the guilt and loneliness, etc.But this tragedy is here played almost for laughs with a bizarre fabulist kind of treatment, and so I never believe in any of it, and I'm left not giving a crap that some kid has died, because I can't believe that the kid is real. Nor is anything real. I leave thinking either I'm a terrible person for not caring that a kid has died... Or I choose a more comfortable feeling and that is to think that the director /writer /everyone involved in this is a soulless or cruel idiot. Yes, it is only a movie, but books and movies are supposed to make me believe for their duration and to illuminate the human experience. This does none of that. It felt like an insult to me and a masturbatory exercise by the filmmaker, whose work I will avoid henceforth.

T. S. Spivet lives with his family in a ranch in the western US. It has a privileged mind, drowned by the rural life. One day he receives a call saying that one of his inventions have been awarded and embarks on a journey across the country only to collect the prize. The screenplay delivers a nice story. Of those epic tales featuring children. As often happens with films in which the lead is a boy, the young actor is fundamental. He achieves very good moments. The last movie of the Jeunet / Laurant duet (Amélie, Delicatessen, Eternal Love, etc.). A contemporary fable. The journey of a child crossing the country: nearly a fantastic and touching road movie; the story of an odyssey with magical touches from a mind like JP Jeunet. The film has a cinematography and directing that gives pleasure to the eye and carries the story very well. But I would have liked to see more things like the ones he dazzled us with in Amélie and Delicatessen. I got the impression of a sweetened Jeunet, Hollywoodized, off ... At times it even seems influenced by Tim Burton and Wes Anderson. Near the end, the movie goes off a little (total American moment).

We rent a lot of movies locally and we rented this movie with high hopes. We have enjoyed many movies with young children as the stars/co- stars (such as "Hugo," "Nim's Island," "What We Did on Our Holiday" and "Mr. Holmes"). Although we enjoyed Kyle Catlett's performance, before 30 minutes were passed, we stopped the movie, and returned it to the video store for a refund. We have spent our lives helping people and animals in peril. We are simply sick and tired of animals being depicted in movies in cruel or neglectful or abusive ways. People think "cowboys" are cool. Well, cowboys, like the father in this movie, was callous and cruel when one of their goats was in pain. We don't need to see idiot human characters with hearts of stone/no compassion and a room full of poor stuffed animal heads (very un-cool). What's cool is Chuck Connors in "The Rifleman" - a character who cared about humane treatment of people and animals.

What a surprise to me- I was expecting another European artsy movie that does not go anywhere. I am European and generally sick of this kind of movies especially from France that bore me to tears. Instead I saw an entertaining movie, full of wonderful filmmaking, touching story and interesting characters. The story is told with an incredible focus on details and beautiful imagery. This is definitely an emotional story carried by kid actors that could have gone terribly wrong. For my taste Mr. Jeunet found a very tasteful way to direct the cast through the potential pitfalls of the story. The story is out there in a fantasy world combined with National Geographic Imagery- great combination. I am sure not for everyone but it worked for me. Chapeau monsieur Jeunet.