Homage to family values

Vitus is a 2006 Swiss film production portraying the trials of the eponymous highly gifted 12 year old boy.

The cast is generally pretty solid. The title role is played sympathetically by young Teo Gheorghiu, who himself is highly gifted. Yeah — ooohhh aahhhh! — that’s actually him playing those difficult piano pieces. Well seriously, the kid is a marvel! But that’s not what’s really appealing about this movie.

Perhaps the standout performance is from Bruno Ganz, fresh from his acclaimed portrayal of Adolf Hitler in Downfall, playing the boy’s kindly, wise and slightly mischievous grandfather. (And I see Ganz has more recently took a prominent role in Francis Ford Coppola’s late return to filmmaking, Youth Without Youth.) But that’s not what’s really appealing about this movie.

Another highlight, despite her somewhat peripheral role as Vitus’s former babysitter, is Tamara Scarpellini, a stunning young beauty who for some reason seems to have since disappeared from the cinema screens. But that’s not what’s really appealing about this movie.

The film straddles between realism and fantasy as Vitus struggles to “find his star” as an extraordinary individual in a mundane world. He discovers that the stock market is really cool, because “you can make 1,000 percent profit, but you only lose 100 percent.” I won’t give away any more of the plot, but anyway that’s not what’s really appealing about this movie.

No, what’s really appealing about this film is its refreshingly un-PC ‘message’ that...

Insider Trading is Okay

Moreover, insider trading is particularly okay when it’s done for the betterment of kith’n’kin.

And as a matter of fact, insider trading is downright cute when it’s done by a highly gifted young lad, aided and abetted by his kindly, wise and slightly mischievous grandfather, for the betterment of kith’n’kin.

No more need really be said, except ... Three and a Half Stars.