The Wild Child is based on the true story of a young boy found in the woods of France and taken in by a doctor who wants to educate him. I went in with little interest in the subject matter, but found the movie to be surprisingly engrossing. I was impressed by the remarkable child acting by Jean-Pierre Cargol in the titular role. Although there were some missteps and errors, it was a very solid and endearing performance overall.In addition to writing and directing this piece, Truffaut also acts in it as Dr. Itard. Unfortunately, his acting was terrible, as if he were reading from a script without emotion or complexity. It's rare that you see an adult actor put to shame by a child actor, but here you have it. Normally I would say he should stick to directing, but that's not really his forte either. We have an abundance of lingering shots and boring scenes. The pacing is atrocious. While the content is always interesting, it doesn't ever build up to anything. It just keeps going on and on. There is no climax and the ending is abrupt. Nothing really impressed me, but the film is actually quite engaging to an attentive audience. Don't go out of your way to find this, but if you catch it on TV, you might be hard-pressed to change the channel.
IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0064285/