80
CineVue by Joe Walsh
T.S. Spivet is a dreamlike fairytale, which swims in the romanticism of childhood and the decay of the American Dream.
The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- France,
- Canada
- 2013
- · 105m
Director
Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Cast
Kyle Catlett,
Helena Bonham Carter,
Judy Davis,
Callum Keith Rennie,
Niamh Wilson,
Jakob Davies
Genre
Adventure,
Drama,
Family
A 10-year-old cartographer secretly leaves his family's ranch in Montana, where he lives with his cowboy father, scientist mother, and Miss America-obsessed sister, and travels across the country aboard a freight train to receive an award at the Smithsonian Institute. A messy, warm comedy about grief, family and imagination.
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What are critics saying?
80
Variety by Jay Weissberg
The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet is the perfect 3D vehicle and Jeunet takes full advantage, offering a feast of amusing visual flourishes suited to the book’s playfulness.
70
The Hollywood Reporter
The film's greatest achievement is in the way the accomplished 3D treatment -- this is Jeunet’s first foray into the format -- emerges entirely naturally, as the precise expression of a gifted child’s vivid imagination.
70
The Hollywood Reporter by Jonathan Holland
The film's greatest achievement is in the way the accomplished 3D treatment -- this is Jeunet’s first foray into the format -- emerges entirely naturally, as the precise expression of a gifted child’s vivid imagination.
67
The A.V. Club by Jesse Hassenger
While it doesn’t operate at its full potential, Spivet nonetheless offers a bracing risk: a kid adventure with danger alongside its whimsy and sadness alongside its reassurances.
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey
Jeunet’s major achievement is to capture the book’s complicated museum clutter and hothouse-flower sensitivity.
63
RogerEbert.com by Simon Abrams
While some of the film's wide emotional turns—from over-caffeinated road movie to magically-realistic melodrama and back again—are not handled with care, the film is more than the sum of its unequal parts.
60
Total Film by Paul Bradshaw
With more whimsy than a Wes Anderson wedding – and a clunky third act that potholes the plot – Jeunet’s American comeback is beautiful, heart-warming and a bit of a mess.
60
Empire by Ian Nathan
For all it boasts in ingenious style, this genial American yarn lacks the delicious bile of Jenuet’s early days.
42
The Playlist by Oliver Lyttelton
Jeunet occasionally reminds you why he was once considered one of the most exciting names in world cinema. But for the most part, it’s another visually interesting, somewhat hollow misfire.
40
The Telegraph by Robbie Collin
Like one of its animated 3D asides, the film jumps out at you, twiddles around and then folds itself away into nowhere. It’s all pop-up, no book.
20
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
The two adjectives in the title should be replaced with "annoying" and "unendurably tiresome".
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