The 10-year-old boy, Spaviy, is shy and smart, and loves science and invention. The family lives on a farm. The father is a tough cowboy. The mother is a neurotic entomologist. The adolescent sister thinks about how to escape from this closed village and go to the big city to participate in beauty pageants. His brother Layton’s biggest hobby is Hit animals with an air gun. Speyway studies all kinds of wonderful machinery every day, immersing himself in his own world. Obviously, my father prefers Layton, Speyway's younger brother, because the boy who is not well-headed makes him more like a "man" in the traditional sense. But one day, the reckless Layton played with a jammed gun in the barn and eventually killed himself, while Spavy was by his side and wanted to use an instrument to record the sound waves of the gunshots. From then on, the family stopped talking about Layton's death, but fell into a deeper silence and estrangement. At this time, Spavii was informed that his "perpetual motion machine" had won an extremely high scientific award. He was worried that if others knew that he was only 10 years old, he would no longer believe in him, so he decided to set off on his own and go to Washington to receive the award. Hungry and tired all the way, hitchhiking on the train, and finally arrived in Washington.
Obviously, this is a film that observes the surroundings through a child's perspective. The world reflected in the eyes of the precocious and intelligent Spaviy is full of all kinds of absurd or warm people and things. Many self-righteous "normal people" are immersed in their own world and feel complacent. In fact, they are stupid. Some people are not treated by ordinary people. The understanding homeless man and the strange bird have a beautiful and gentle heart. This setting is combined with the detached narration and comic-like special effects superimposed on the movie screen, creating a fairy tale and magical atmosphere together. What's more, the famous movie star Helena Bonham Carter who starred in Spaviy’s mother was born with the woman who played the weird girlfriend in "Fight Club" and the Queen of Hearts in "Alice in Wonderland". The mysterious and weird temperament that came, gave the film a subtle state of being close to reality.
In terms of genre, this is a film that is difficult to explain in one sentence. It has most of the characteristics of family movies, the alienation and intimacy between family members, bickering and reconciliation, the trivial and unresolved daily life and the warmth it brings, and at the same time It also has the essence of a road movie. The child goes on the road alone, goes through personnel affairs, faces the reality of suffering again and again, encounters kind passers-by again and again, passes through each other's warmth, and finally matures. The director Jean-Pierre Gennet wanted to express a lot of thoughts, but it was not messy. He shrouded all these in a family, a road, and a child. The strange thing is that it is actually impossible to trigger all this. The invention of existence "perpetual motion machine", this "non-existent thing" has become a chaotic, higher than real life symbol, leading children to explore alone on the road, and leading a family that has moved towards indifference and alienation to embrace again Together.
As a director, Jean-Pierre Gennet also mocked many people and things in the film, but his perspective is basically to respond with compassion and tolerance, and for the people that the young Spaviy met on the road. They are all helping this child. From this perspective, this is not only a child-themed movie, but also a rare and childlike movie. Director Ning Hao once said that there are angels to help you in Western highway movies, and Chinese highway movies are full of bad guys. It seems to be the case. Such a calm movie can move people, not only depends on the scenery and children, but also has a kind environment and mood that you can believe.
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