Now Showing: Prodigy

Prodigy
Genre: Drama
Director: Todd Haynes
Writer: Chad Taylor
Cast: Rachel Weisz, Julia Butters, Hugh Dancy, Patrick Stewart, Noemie Merlant, Tom Hollander, Melanie Laurent, Gerard Depardieu, Andrew Scott

Plot: A male voice asks “So what was your earliest memory from that year?”

At a hospital in 1955 Paris, eight-year-old Minou (Julia Butters) is in the operating room for eye surgery. She has been partially blind since birth and has had multiple surgeries to correct the matter. In the waiting room, her mother Marie (Rachel Weisz) paces anxiously.

Back at home, Minou recovers while Marie does her business from home. Marie is very well-to-do and somewhat cold (yet still motherly) to Minou, who does not talk. They go shopping together but Minou does not feel well and requests to go back home. Simon (Hugh Dancy) pays a visit to their home to continue giving Minou piano lessons. From the kitchen, Marie listens to Minou play and decides it is not good enough. She tells Simon to stop the lesson for the day as she is unpleased with Minou’s progress. She scolds Minou when Simon leaves

The next day, after home-schooling, Minou goes to ballet practice, where she struggles.

“Only days after the surgery?” “Only days.”

When Simon comes to visit for the next lesson, Minou does better - to Marie’s delight. Simon, sensing the tense relationship between Minou and her mother, tries to talk to the girl but she is not very communicative. Simon notices a notebook sitting near the piano that is open to some poetry. He tells her that he loves poetry and asks if it is her’s. She nods her head yes. He asks if he can read some, and she nods her head yes. He starts to read, expecting something from an amateur. But instead, he is enamored by her writing. He can’t stop turning the pages. He tells Minou how wonderful these are.

After their lesson, he tells Marie about reading Minou’s words. Marie says she didn’t even know that Minou wrote poetry. He tells her that he has an uncle who runs a publishing house and that he could run this by him to see if it is publishable. Marie is protective of Minou so she is hesitant but Simon is insistent that this is an endeavor worth pursuing. This is some of the best poetry he’s ever read. There is a hint of sexual tension between Simon and Marie but she suppresses it and tells him to show the poetry to his uncle.

Simon meets with his uncle, Rene Julliard (Patrick Stewart), and shows him the poems. He is floored by it and asks who wrote it. Simon is honest and says it is an 8-year-old that he teaches piano. Rene does not believe his nephew and asks who really wrote it. Simon doubles down and swears to it. Rene tells him that it is obviously publishable but that his reputation may be on the line if he says that it is an 8-year-old. Simon insists that his uncle do it and be honest about who it is, as he really feels like this girl could use a confidence boost. Rene sighs and says he’ll see what he can do.

Once her surrealist work is published in Éditions Julliard, it sets the publishing world on fire (much to Rene’s delight). In the mail, the family gets a note from the Vatican, telling them that Pope Pius XII admires Minou’s work. At home, Marie has Minou switch her primary focus to poetry, obviously, while also allowing her to quit the ballet lessons. In the public, Marie realizes that Minou is starting to become somewhat of a celebrity, with some even calling her young daughter a genius. This provides some warmth in the relationship between Marie and Minou. Simon continues to visit for piano lessons and to be the middleman for Minou’s poetry. Marie receives a call from Elle magazine to request a photoshoot for Minou.

At his office, Denis (Tom Hollander) - a contemporary and rival of Rene - reads through the latest edition of Elle and about the success of Minou. This annoys him and he then reads Éditions Julliard to see the poetry for himself. He admits to his secretary that is good but he is highly skeptical that it was written by a child. In his building, he tracks down one of his best investigative journalists, Celeste (Melanie Laurent). He voices concerns and theorizes that it is actually being written by the girl’s mother, who is just seeking attention and make a buck off of her daughter. Celeste says she can look into it but Denis says that she knows the answer he is looking for.

Celeste meets with both Minou and Marie to do a profile for Denis’s paper. Since Minou still doesn’t talk much, her interview with Marie is more in-depth. As she asks more about Marie’s life, Marie tells her that she always was an aspiring poetress when she was younger - which makes her even more happy for Minou’s success. Celeste smiles and tells her that is fascinating. After the interview, she starts to go to work on knowing more about the mother-daughter pair. She calls Denis and says that she has the answer he is looking for.

When Marie wakes up the next day, she starts is as usual and checks the morning papers. As she flips through, she finds a picture of herself and Minou on the cover of Celeste’s as expected. However, bold letters call them a fraud and accuse Marie of writing the poems for Minou. Clearly both hurt and in anger, she debates on whether or not to let Minou know. She chooses not to and tells her daughter that they are staying home that day. When Simon comes to visit, he asks if she knows and Marie tells him not to bring it up. Act as everything is normal. He then asks, against his better judgement, if it is true. This finally brings Marie to tears as she orders him to leave if she does not trust them. He insists that he does, he just didn’t want his uncle to be the one to fall on the sword if it is true. He says that they will fight tooth-and-nail to prove Minou’s innocence and true genius. At this point they are face-to-face and, in the heat of the moment, kiss. Marie isn’t sure if what she has done there is wrong and tells Simon to get along with the lessons.

The next day, things worsen as every publication and tabloid has picked up on the story. And as a result, more people are doing research into the two of them. Marie, with Minou behind her, opens her door to go to the market. Instead, she finds many journalists and photographers waiting. One of the journalists shouts and asks if Minou knew that Marie was not Minou’s real mother. Marie is flushed with anger and lunges toward the journalist and berates him before hurrying back inside.

Marie rests her head on the closed door as she begins to cry. We hear Minou speak for the first time and she asks Marie if what they said is true. Marie turns around and slides her back against the door as she goes into a sitting position. She requests that Minou come and she obliges, putting her head on Marie’s lap. She explains that she adopted Minou when she was 1 and a half years old. She has never known when was the right time to tell her, given the various health issues they have faced over the years. She swears she was going to tell her one day, crying so much that she can barely speak. Minou nustles her head into Marie’s stomach, indicating that it is all okay. Marie strokes Minou’s hair as she continues to cry, with the sounds of journalists still outside the door.

Over the coming days, the debate in the press deepens as almost all publications take sides. Most are critical of Rene for publishing without going through the work to verify the authenticity. Simon, seeking to repair his uncle’s reputation, requests a meeting with Denis to see how this can be squashed. Marie requests to go with him to this meeting. He says that doesn’t seem like the best idea but she insists.

At the meeting, Denis acts sympathetic but it feels hollow. He says that one way that this could be proven is to have Minou sit in front of a public audience, be given a topic, and have set time limit to write a poem over it - in front of everyone. Simon dismisses this, pointing out that the kid is not the social type but Marie is outright irate, asking if he has any idea has the creative process works. Denis says Marie must be the expert on it, implying that she is the one who writes the poems. Denis says he will not stop publishing his thoughts unless proven otherwise. Cooled down, Marie says that she has a compromise: instead of in a public setting, Minou would perform an entry examination for the esteemed Society of Authors, Poets, and Music Publishers. If the director supervises and thinks that the poem is worthy of entry, surely that will prove Minou’s talent. Denis begrudgingly agrees.

We see Marie sitting down Minou to tell her the news. The voiceover from before talks over it.

In 1991, an older Minou (Noemie Merlant) sits in an antiquated room across from Jameson (Andrew Scott). She tells him that she thinks that her mother had applied to join the Society when she was younger but was rejected. But she never actually told her that so she isn’t going to put that in the book.

Back in 1955, Minou arrives at the Society of Authors, Poets, and Music Publishers and meets with the director Jean-Paul (Gérard Depardieu), who has a cold harsh demeanor. He tells them that he will not take this lightly and will judge Minou as he has judged anyone else. With Marie still there, Jean-Paul informs her that there will be two potential topics: “Paris Sky” or “I Am Eight Years Old”.

“My eight years were already too sad so: the eyes...the lessons...I was later diagnosed with autism. So naturally I chose Paris Sky.”

She sits down in a room with a window with one-way glass, where Jean-Paul looks on. Minou sits at the table, looking at the window (thus at herself) before looking down at the paper.

“And how did it go?”

Paris Sky,
weight,
secret,
flesh,
who by hiccups,
spits in our faces
through the open maw of rows of houses
a spurt of blood
between its luminous stumps of bad teeth …

Jean-Paul visits Marie, with Simon by her side, and delivers the good news. Minou has been accepted into the SAPMP. Marie is overjoyed and gives Simon a hug before Minou comes back from the room and gives her mother a hug for the first time all movie. Simon calls his uncle and joyously delivers the news to him.

“And the rest was history, right?” Jameson asks, who we soon learn to be Minou’s biographer. She laughs this off and says not quite. Her star faded as quickly as it had risen. It did not take long for the publications to forget about her. For a new challenge, she took up guitar and was quite good at that, she’ll have Jameson know. He asks if she continued writing and she says it is complicated.

We see this older Minou by Marie’s side in her bed at home. Marie is thinner and more fragile than before.

She explains that when her mother got sick, she quit her artistic pursuits and went through nursing school to take care of her. Jameson is confused by this and says that Minou doesn’t strike him as a nurse-type. She agrees but points out that at least it does not come with the stress of public life as nurses are fairly anonymous in society.

From the bed, we see Marie tell Minou she loves her for the first time all film.

She says that after her mother’s death, she tried to write more but the urge never came. Jameson points out that what they are doing right now is a form of writing. She agrees but tells him that this book will not be a best-seller. In today’s day and age with all the mass media and non-stop news, nobody will care about a child prodigy poet from the 1950s. And there’s nothing wrong with that. She cracks a smile.