This simplistic fable (with its faint echoes of Pinocchio) about a child genius was Jodie Foster's directorial debut.

Quite a nice little film it is, too, although a bit slow in parts, and it comes as something of a surprise at the end to find that it's purely a work of fiction.

Jodie plays the kid's mother (the Geppetto figure), a waitress-dancer who's not as dim as she makes out.

But she provides no sort of environment, thinks pain-in-the-butt professor Dianne Wiest (the Blue Fairy, sort of) for the kid's upbringing.

She sweeps him off to bright kids' summer college where he shows amazing aptitude at maths, but gains most from the companionship of a human Lampwick (singer Harry Connick Jr) who teaches him how to play pool.

But, this not being Pinocchio, the kids don't all turn into donkeys and, starved of affection, the kid heads for home and the life of a real little boy.

It's a low-key film with some good laughs, the odd poignant moment and a tinkly piano score that sometimes makes the pace seem slower than it is.

B-plus for Jodie.