cricketbat Vitus takes a little too long to get to the meat of the story. And then it takes its time letting the story unfold. Aside from the slow pacing, however, it's an interesting story about a child prodigy starring an actual child prodigy.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "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.

kikoshaus Perhaps you heard about geniuses before and imagined the typical stereotype of a "genius", like probably Einstein, Newton or some smart dude of our times. But whatever you might have had in mind, Vitus will make you think how cool is to be in charge of your intelligence and skills. No matter what your age is, no matter how super smart you are, you still can be cool without losing your touch. I love Vitus and Bruno Ganz makes also a terrific role and a couple of key scenes with him are just amazing. I specially like the fact about this movie that once you realize you are different and you try to hide it, still your own scent will come up sudden, unexpectedly. That makes you unique and should encourage you to direct what you want to achieve in life taking advantage of your own resources. Vitus shows you it's fine to have no clue about what to do. The question is, do you really don't know what to do? Not sure how many Vitus are in the world anyways but definitely this movie is one of my favorites to be re-watched.

simonasidorin You like a movie , O.K. ....but then you got to explain to other people why ? As somebody already said it , no carcrashes , special effects , free and unnecessary nudities. A family movie , But it's also about life ,family relationships ,a purpose in life , spiced with comic moments and also with the dilemma : How you deal with genuine geniuses ? . As parent , friend , neighbour or simple aquintance . We all passed trough those moments in life . What are we gonna become ? Artist ? Lawyer ? Butcher ? Athlete ? Scientist ? Electrician ? Pilot ? Vet ? Carpenter ? Taxi-driver ? Did we make the right decision ? Watching this movie I thought about Mozart's childhood or maybe the waste of childhood , sacrifice of childhood he had . He was no ordinary fellow , but then again Nicola Tesla was a genius as well and who knows how his childhood was like ? But to return to the movie , Vitus loves life and his parents , even if is hard for him to express that , he is a wunderkind after all, even when he names his educator at kindergarten Obelix he does not do that out of being rude. Even if my fellow compatriot (Teo Gheorghiu) is playing a role , so it's obeying to a script it looks more like this movie is inspired by a real character , a (mini)biography of Teo Gheorghiu . In the real life he is like that..... Good performances by Bruno Ganz and of course Teo Gheorghiu. Bravo! .