Review of "Vitus"

Obviously, I am not going to review everyday since I am officially busy again. Sorry about that. But anyway, let me begin.

So "Vitus" was a movie about the life of a child prodigy. At around the age of 6 vitus von holzen is able to play the piano as well as many famous pianists. It follows his life as he is forced to play the piano in order to 'improve himself' and also tracks his family as they go into new business ventures.

Vitus' dad, Leo, is an inventor who has created a new hearing aide, which can be used as a fasion accessory. His invention becomes popular and causes Leo to start making money allowing the Von Holzens to upgrade in society. Due to Leo's success in life, Vitus is neglected from his family. In order to ensure Vitus' safety at home while Leo and wife Helen are away they hire a baby sitter, Isabel. Vitus falls in love with Isabel, but Isabel is fired from baby sitting due to an incident in which she is found drinking with Vitus. At this time Vitus is 6 years old and Isabel is a mature 12 year old.

The movie then jumps 6 years in the future in which the family is now upper class and Helen is the one taking care of Vitus and forcing him to play piano constantly. Eventually Vitus gets sick of it and attempts to kill himself by jumping off the balcony. Luckily, or some may say unfortunately, he was not successful in his suicide attempt and ended up with no major injuries but had a concussion. From here, Vitus took the opportunity and started to pretend he was a normal kid and did not show any genious. While pretending though, Vitus' grandfather finds out of the fib that Vitus is portraying. The grandfather of course keeps his secret which he promises to keep until he hits his death bed. Vitus then wants to help his grandfather so he basically solves the stock market and starts to use it to his advantage changing his grandfather's $340,000 into $3,700,000 overnight using stocks. Vitus then creates a company under his grandfather's name and starts making money for his grandfather and himself, all this time pretending he was just normal. Eventually, the grandfather dies and in doing so sends a letter to Vitus' parents revealing everything, allowing Vitus to come out and tell the truth about everything. This revelation of truth allows Vitus to save his dad from getting fired from his company, which occured once new management came around, and also to make his long time love, Isabel, fall in love with him.

The movie was an extraordinary film. I loved the film very much. It was a Swiss film, and had subtitles which made it that much more exciting. I liked the concept of watching a genius just want to be normal just like everyone else. It shows that in the end we need to accept who we are and just yell it to everyone, instead of trying to conform to society and what our idea of normality is. The portrayal of this using a genius was what made this film unique. You usually see this sort of portrayal occuring when someone has nothing at all and has to be themselves in order to prosper and become to have everything they want. It was a good thing to see that people who already 'have everything' want to just be normal also. This is what I'll probably take from this film.

The portrayal of the mother as 'losing everything' once Vitus pretends to be normal is also a heartwrenching one. The mother who had everything she could ever want from a child, and was in essence spoiled from the events, was destroyed because he became 'normal'. Helen could no longer accept Vitus even though he was still his child and was even a 'little above average' and completely healthy. Instead she punished herself for having him not continue to be a genious. She felt it was partially her fault and hated that her son was no longer perfect in her eyes. She could not accept him for who he was. I personally felt a huge connection with the mother. As I was home over this past christmas holiday I noticed my mother was going through the same thing. During my high school years I had been a very good child. I got good grades, I behaved well, followed instructions most of the time, and was respectful. Of course once I came out of the closet it hurt my mom and she now thinks I am no longer perfect. Of course this is not even the reason why she is bad. I spoiled her because I was so good to her. Now my brother, who is a completely normal teenager, is showing her what normality really is and my mother can't handle it. She wonders what she did wrong with him, when in fact she did nothing wrong with him, he just happens to be 'normal'. It's as if she got used to such a good child, that she no longer wanted normal, just like Vitus' mother. But just like Vitus, we all just want our parents to be happy, but must also look after ourselves.

In the end, I personally enjoyed this film and would watch it countless times again. I recommend it to anyone who needs a good heartwarming film with meaning, and was not produced in America.

-Aram the Garmo