Vitus (2007)

Built as it is around child actors, Fredi M. Murer's Vitus is the sort of cute import upon which the Weinstein Brothers used to pounce. Sony Pictures Classics does the honors this time, but Vitus is no great shakes: it's the silly, sappy, Swiss version of Searching for Bobby Fischer. Ostensibly about the lonely domestic and social struggles of a wunderkind, Vitus is in fact a haphazard adventure of the title character mastering life between the ages of 6 and 12. He gets a pinch of useful advice from his beloved grandfather (Bruno Ganz). Mostly, Vitus is about listening, which Vitus must teach the world to do as well as he does. Unfortunately, only the piano playing of real-life prodigy Teo Gheorghiu impresses, the rest is all metaphorical mediocrity.