Oddball film is about children, not for them
The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (out of 4) Starring Kyle Catlett, Helena Bonham Carter, Callum Keith Rennie. Co-written and directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. At the Varsity. 105 minutes. PG.
What would happen if you made a kids’ movie that wasn’t for kids?
Filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet is about to find out.
Of course, considering Jeunet’s past works, such as Delicatessen and Amélie, one has come to expect the idiosyncratic and unconventional. The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet does not deviate from that course.
The story revolves around young T.S. (which, we eventually learn, stands for Tecumseh Sparrow), who lives on a ranch in Montana with his offbeat family, a cowboy dad “born 100 years too late,” an entomologist mom who’s more obsessed with beetles than raising kids, older sister Gracie and brother Layton, who’s the diametrical opposite of T.S.
While T.S. is clearly a boy genius who takes after his mom, Layton is rough and outdoorsy like his dad, whose overfondness for guns has deadly consequences.
Ayear after Layton is killed in a gun accident, T.S. gets a phone call from the Smithsonian Institution telling him he has won the prestigious Baird Prize for his creation of a perpetual motion machine, one of science’s most illusive achievements.
(T.S. is pedantic enough to explain that, since the magnets powering his device will run out of energy in about 400 years, the description of “perpetual” is technically inaccurate.)
The institute is unaware that T.S. is a mere stripling of 10 when it invites him to give an acceptance speech several days hence. With careful preparation, T.S. nonetheless sets off on his own cross-country trek to get to Washington, D.C.
It’s an interesting and occasionally amusing journey, filled with oddball characters (something else Jeunet specializes in) and T.S. shows unexpected resourcefulness throughout.
The story returns time and again to the traumatic death of Layton, who makes an occasional ghostlike appearance as the journey progresses.
Jeunet uses some interesting visuals, including comically elaborate pop-up books to illustrate the film’s three parts. The film is shot in 3D, which Jeunet uses to great effect to instill an almost magical quality in the prairie landscape (actually Alberta, not Montana) although it does feels as though he tires of the device partway through and pretty much abandons it.
The film is generally well-cast, starting with young Kyle Catlett, whose portrayal of T.S. is incredibly poignant and assured. Helena Bonham Carter plays cerebral mom, Dr. Clair, with fine understatement though her eyes hinting at the grief she is determined to bury underneath her scientific research. Callum Keith Rennie is spot-on solid as the taciturn dad.
But the wonderful Judy Davis is largely wasted as Smithsonian official G.H. Jibsen, who degenerates into a foul-mouthed shrew by film’s end and Niamh Wilson is way too shrill as older sister Gracie.
But the pall of grief that permeates the entire film — Jeunet is forever returning to Layton’s death without ever providing additional illumination — and the filmmaker’s characteristically odd narrative style marks it as a challenging film that adults might enjoy but one that is likely to leave younger audiences bewildered.
For that reason, responsible adults should think carefully before exposing youngsters to the unusual adventures of T.S. Spivet.