The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet

Adaptation of an American best seller or not, Jean-Pierre Jeunet keeps making Jeunets. You can see the hand of the director of Delicatessen and Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain in the visual style (warm colours, clever staging, perfected images) but also in the copious quantities of titbits of information, jokes, anecdotes, tom-foolery, and charming details. The Frenchman is particularly adept at furnishing and dressing up a story. In this case, he has a rich source in the book The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen. The 12-year-old T.S. Spivet (the spindly Kyle Catlett) is a child prodigy with an enormous passion for cartography, science, and technology. After the death of his twin brother, who did excel at all the things you have to be able to do if you grow up on a ranch and your father is a taciturn cowboy, the boy packs his bags and, without telling his parents, travels to Washington.

The Smithsonian there has no idea that they are about to award their most prestigious scientific prize to a child with a boundless imagination. Avoid this if you found Jeunet’s earlier fairy-tales annoying, but roll up if you do like his style. The 3D is a boon and the film’s poignancy strikes unexpectedly. A fine piece of work.

THE YOUNG AND PRODIGIOUS T.S. SPIVET ●●●
US, 2013, dir.: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, act.: Kyle Catlett, Helena Bonham Carter, 120 min.

> INTERVIEW WITH JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET