IN this charming little odyssey written and directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet from a novel by Reif Larsen, 10-year-old TS (Kyle Catlett) leaves the family ranch on the crest of the Rocky Mountains near the Canadian border to travel to Washington DC to receive a prestigious prize from the Smithsonian Institution.

His family doesn’t know where or why he’s gone. Laconic father (Callum Keith Rennie) is a cowboy born a century too late; mother (Helena Bonham-Carter) is obsessed with researching beetles; his elder sister (Niamh Wilson) is ambitious to become Miss America and he has a twin in Layton (Jakob Davies).

The story’s dramatic construction deftly weaves splendid outdoors imagery as TS rides a freight train through mountains and across plains. The journey ends when the semi-trailer driven by Iraq-war veteran Ricky (Julian Richings) carries him from Chicago freight yards to the front steps of the Smithsonian. There, bureaucrat Ms Jibsen (Judy Davis) recognises TS as a ladder that can carry her up several career grades. After all, he has built the perpetual motion machine that has baffled science for millennia.

TS’ film has strong feel-good values carrying him through adventures, close shaves, meetings with folk who might or might not deal kindly with him. Carrying a grievous burden that the film’s in no haste to reveal, he’s very much an innocent little country boy vulnerable among the risks of being alone in an urban adult world. I enjoyed his film very well.

At Palace Electric