Vitus.

"Of the thin trickle of foreign films that ever see proper US release, the 'subtitled moppets' subgenre seems to me the most superfluous," writes Nick Pinkerton for indieWIRE, and when a film like Switzerland's Vitus comes along, press kit boasting an Antoine de Saint-Exupery quote on the cover, one can only prepare to be cloyed to death.... Vitus doesn't even manipulate with a modicum of skill."

"This film about a brilliant boy pianist fighting to shape his destiny was Switzerland's entry for the 2006 Oscars, and you can see why," writes Matt Zoller Seitz in the New York Times. "Like most award-seeking crowd-pleasers, it places uncomfortable impulses in opposition - in this case parents' desire to develop a child's latent genius, versus the child's desire to have a 'normal' childhood and find his own way - then dramatizes them in the most unchallenging way imaginable."

Updated through 7/2.

"Awesome as Vitus's orchestrations may be, the film pushes an off-putting message about unchecked privilege that reeks of capitalist pigdom," writes Ed Gonzalez at Slant.

Update, 7/1: "Blissfully devoid of both sentimentality and melodrama, the story takes a few fantastical turns toward the end that dampen the realism but serve the film's larger message," writes Jean Oppenheimer in the Voice.

Update, 7/2: Susan King talks with director Fredi M Murer for the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by dwhudson at June 29, 2007 5:40 AM