10 year old T.S. Spivet lives on a remote Montana ranch. His father (Callum Keith Rennie) is an old fashion cowboy. His mother Dr. Clair (Helena Bonham Carter) has a rambling set of interests. His sister Gracie is eager to leave home where the only traffic comes from the passing trains. Ms. Jibsen (Judy Davis) from the Smithsonian calls to tell him that he won the prestigious Baird prize for a perpetual motion machine expecting an older scientist. He pretends to be speaking for his father and runs away to Washington D.C. riding the rails.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet directed one of my favorite movies, Amélie. In that movie, he is able to use Paris' romanticism for his surreal touches. In this movie, he's a bit lost. He's out of his elements. The kid is fine but nothing more. The surreal touches remain. Sometimes it's fun like the fake RV family. Other times, it's out of place and really out of time. That ranch exists only in old movies. The brother is another issue that needs clarity earlier. It's not a thing to have a revelation. Jeunet's style of movie making needs a level of unreality which clashes with this story. At times, it makes this movie look cheap. I had higher hopes.

Mostly for kids, but has its moments.

The story of a 10-year old kid who treks across the United States to receive a science award.

Just from that you already know its quite far-fetched. Not only this, the kid is the hero of the story, to the detriment of all other characters, especially adults. It's the usual "make the kid wise and talented beyond his years and beyond the adults around him/her and the kids will love it" scenario. Add in some naive kids-view-of-the-world-presented-as-profundity and the fact that the kid is quite annoying at times, often in a nerdy sort of way, and, from the beginning, you start to think of watching something else instead.

However, it's not all bad. The scenery during his trip is stunning and the cinematography matches this. There are some good emotional and genuine funny moments along the way too.

Overall: kids will love it, adults can give it a miss.

More attention should be paid to the words spoken by children. Now, they may be understandable to other children, and possibly their parents, but what about the rest of us? I'm English, my wife American and neither could make out what the young star was saying for the most part, same thing for his sister too. The story was good. It's just a shame that this important aspect of the film was ignored, or worse, not even considered a problem.