"Vitus" is a 2006 Swiss film and almost 10 years ago that runs for almost 2 hours and won Best Film at the Swiss Film awards that year. It came pretty close to an Academy Award nomination in the foreign language category. It was Switzerland's submission and made the January shortlist. Basically, it is about a child prodigy, who has a gigantic IOQ, keeps provoking his teachers, is an incredibly talented stock market broker and, most of all, a pianist. This film deals competently with the issues of being just a child who wants a life like all children in the face of his great prospects. The actors were all very solid in here, some even really good, such as Bruno Ganz who you may know from "Downfall". Here he plays a kind grandfather who helps getting his son on the right path when the boy's parents are overwhelmed with their own problems and do not know what to do with their son anymore. The actress who played the mother was okay too. The father was fairly forgettable. But the worst was probably the boy, which is quite a shame as he was the absolute lead character just like the title suggests. Many children's films these days do not require great performances from the younger actors as they are not written in a way where they have to portray great emotion or range. "Vitus" is an exception here. The title character was actually written in a way where only a pretty talented child actor can make it truly work and Teo Gheorgiou was not the right choice. With another, a better casting choice this could have been a truly great piece of filmmaking. Still Fredi M. Murer did a decent job all in all. There are moments when the whole child prodigy plot is way over the top, for example when the boy makes millions within hours or starts running his own company, but if we are not too strict on these, it's a very solid watch in my opinion. Taking everything into account, I recommend "Vitus". Oh and another quick note. There are many Swiss German films out there which are impossible to understand also for German native speakers, because the accent is too thick, but this is not one of them. If you speak German, you will understand everything.
Review of Vitus
