The director of Amelie and Delicatessen takes to 3D and delights with his abundant visual wit in this tale of a ten-year-old boy genius’s attempts to understand his weird family and the even weirder wider world.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet brings high 3D style and plentiful imagination to his adaptation of the acclaimed Reif Larsen novel.
The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet 3D 2013
L’extravagant voyage du jeune et prodigieux T.S. Spivet
A glorious storybook America of open prairies, cross-country railroads and zany inventions abounds with pictorial delights in this 3D extravaganza from Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie, Delicatessen ). T.S. is a boy prodigy whose special scientific talents go unappreciated on the Montana ranch where he lives with his entomologist mother (Helena Bonham Carter), his Marlboro Man dad (Callum Keith Rennie) and his bored teenage sister. The accidental death of T.S.’s older brother is a sadness hovering in the background as each follows his or her pursuit – until T.S. is contacted about his perpetual motion machine by the Smithsonian Museum. Blissfully unaware that the brilliant inventor is only ten years old, they invite him to Washington. T.S. steals out one night to undertake the journey alone…
“The quirky charm, visual wit and melancholy undertow of Reif Larsen’s The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet translate joyously to the screen in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet, a rare example of source and adaptation making a perfect match. This unlikely but involving tale of a child prodigy making his way across the United States to collect a reward for his brilliance has been designed to be delightful for parents* and children alike…
Like Amelie, which came about as close to being a 3D film as a 2D film can be, Spivet is about how the imagination is the best instrument for making sense of the world. The film’s job is to make that imagination, in this case T.S. Spivet’s, credible and engaging, and Jeunet succeeds beautifully.” — Jonathan Holland, Hollywood Reporter