The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet
Peter Charney

Review by Peter Charney Pro

The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet 2013

★★★

Watched 20 Jul 2024

While the concept of a whimsical, coming-of-age cross-country adventure film is appealing, The Young and Prodigious T. S. Spivet struggles to find a cohesive tone and style. The off-kilter, surrealist elements clash with the family drama, and the emotional throughline isn’t sufficiently developed to achieve the desired impact of the climax. Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s darker works (Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children) remain his most visually striking and thematically evocative, though fans of Amélie might find this film equally accessible. However, the dialogue didn’t need to be so hyper-intelligent—child actors should be able to understand what they’re saying to deliver their lines naturally.

Had I encountered this film at a younger age, I might have appreciated its randomness as imaginative rather than extraneous. Many of my favorite films, which this one aspires to be in conversation with, blur the boundaries between whimsy and narrative coherence with greater finesse and support.

“Beware of mediocrity. It is the fungus of the mind. We must constantly fight against it or it’ll creep into everything we do.”

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