The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jean-Pierre Jeunet directs. Thomas Hardmeier behind the camera. Denis Sanacore scores. Hervé Schneid cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in Canada, France. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Earned back only 29% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
• 2Released 13 years ago.
• 3International production across 2 countries: Canada, France.
• 4Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, shot by Thomas Hardmeier. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 5Original score by Denis Sanacore. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 6Editor Hervé Schneid shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 7Kyle Catlett and Helena Bonham Carter and Judy Davis carry the top of the cast.
• 8Marketing tagline: "Discover the extravagant journey.".
• 9IMDB entry: tt1981107 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 10Classified under 12 themes, including "freight train", "stowaway", "child prodigy", "twin brother".

The technical file

Cinematography

Thomas Hardmeier

Original score

Denis Sanacore

Editing

Hervé Schneid

Production design

Aline Bonetto

Costume design

Madeline Fontaine

Makeup / hair

Chantal Bergeron

Sound

Vincent Arnardi

Runtime

105 min · 1h 45m

Status

Released

Budget

$33,000,000

Box office

$9,494,789

Return

29% of budget

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

PG

IMDB

The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (2013) ↗

Also by

Jean-Pierre Jeunet

• 
  Casanova

  2015 · ★ 8.2
• 
  L'évasion

  1978 · ★ 8.0
• 
  Amélie

  2001 · ★ 7.9
• 
  A Very Long Engagement

  2004 · ★ 7.3
• 
  Delicatessen

  1991 · ★ 7.3
• 
  The City of Lost Children

  1995 · ★ 7.2

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  THE YOUNG AND PRODIGIOUS SPIVET Trailer (2013)

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Reno2016-07-14
  ★ 8/10

  Sure, everyone finds their pine tree. The film was produced by three countries from three different continents, carved by one of my favoutire French directors that talks of a prodigy child. An English language film set in the American soil. If you had liked his films, then you would like this one as well. Like all his films, it was visually fantastic and it was his first digital 3D project. One of the underrated film of the recent time. A road adventure and a coming-of-age film that neatly rendered especially for the family and children film fans. More like it was a kid version of 'Amelie' and now I realise why the author picked this particular foreign filmmaker for the cinematic translation. This is not some kid's summer vacation tale or the school related stuff, but a rural kid and his weird family. They're united by family, but divided by their field of interest. Born in such family, the film focused his life and mostly the fighting of his loneliness. It was based on the book about a 12 year old boy T.S. Spivet who lives on a ranch in the Rockies with his family. He's a scientific research enthusiastic and so one day he receives an unusual call from the Washington DC that he had won a prestigious award for his invention. After a sudden tragedy in the house he set to travel by his own to the other side of the country. The adventure begins as he hitchhike to his destination where he learns many things. "The amazing thing about water drops, is that they always take the path of least resistance. For humans, it's exactly the opposite." The kid was brilliant, it was his perspective story. In one of the scenes when he gets hurt, that felt like it was real. His co-stars supported him all the way, but not as a game changer. You might agree with me that it is not a great story, somewhat familiar too, but the film topic is inspiring like how an atypical family cooperates during the bad times that compared with their negligence to each other at one point before. There are a few fun moments, but also gets emotional at the final part. The train journey had lots of effects on the narration, because I'd seen a road movie, but this is a very rare, especially it gives us some glimpse over awesome landscapes of different part of the country. Like I said, the cinematography was the best part of the film followed by many others. In the end, I was very satisfied for it is being somewhat simple with having an extraordinary boy character. Because, you know, genius boy means usually the writers goes for an extra mile to make him shine with his brain powers to perhaps face the bad guys or the bad situations for which the audience sets to go awe. Really very sad that it was not as popular as 'Hugo' where everyone who saw it comparing with, especially for the digital 3D visuals. That tells how much the people are addicted to Hollywood and of course marketing was not upto the standards as against the film's standard. In fact, it took me two years to learn such film is exist. So I definitely recommend it to all. If you have not seen it yet, just do it, you might like it, surely you would enjoy it. 8/10

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• EP

  Epithète Films

  FR

• TA

  Tapioca Films

  FR

• FI

  Filmarto

  CA

• 

  Gaumont

  FR

• 

  France 2 Cinéma

  FR

Key crew

• Executive ProducerTyler Thompson
• CastingLucie Robitaille
• ProducerGilles Legrand
• AuthorReif Larsen
• ProducerFrédéric Brillion
• EditorHervé Schneid
• ProducerJean-Pierre Jeunet
• Executive ProducerFrancis Boespflug
• Set DecorationGeoffroy Gosselin
• Art DirectionPaul Healy
• Production DesignAline Bonetto
• Supervising Art DirectorJean-Andre Carriere
• Costume DesignMadeline Fontaine
• Executive ProducerSidonie Dumas
• HairstylistChantal Bergeron
• HairstylistCarol Hemming
• ProducerSuzanne Girard
• Executive ProducerBrian Oliver
• WigmakerDorothée Soual
• Makeup ArtistCamiel McLean
• SoundGérard Hardy
• Sound Re-Recording MixerVincent Arnardi
• Foley ArtistNicolas Becker

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• freight train
• stowaway
• child prodigy
• twin brother
• train
• boy genius
• riding the rail
• runaway child
• brother killing brother
• smithsonian
• cartographer
• perpetual motion machine

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical2014-10-26PG

Also known as

International titles

• L'Extravagant voyage du jeune et prodigieux T. S. SpivetFR
• T.S. Spivet különös utazásaHU
• Die Karte meiner TräumeDE
• Uma Viagem ExtraordináriaBR
• El extraordinario viaje de T.S. SpivetES
• Молодий та надзвичайний СпайветUA
• Ο Απρόβλεπτος κύριος ΣπίβετGR