Problems with this movie, READ

It's not that hard to believe. The disease does exist. My mom use to work in the unit with the babies and she had to deal with a baby that had the aging disease and the baby ended up dying when it was like 3 months old (He aged much faster than the person in this movie) So think before you post.

Why do you think the don't show you his early years? BECAUSE IT WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN BELIVEABLE!!! so think before you post *beep* like that, cause coppola always knows what he's doing..

"Alright, the condition states that he ages four times faster than a normal human being. This means he would have hit puberty between 3 and 4!!!!!!! Can you imagine a four year old kid with the body of a 12-16 year old "unmastering his domain?!?" I can't!"

First off, children around that age are constantly exploring their bodies and touching themselves (usually in public). Their brains tell them that touching erogenous areas feels good, so they continue to do so, regardless of the fact that the body is not developed enough to provide the same result that it does in adults. But, seeing as how he would have already hit puberty, the adolescent/adult reaction to his exploration would have happened, thus surprising the hell out of him, more than likely causing him to panic and call for his parents (or hide it shamefully depending on his upbringing/experience/education). His parents would then be faced with the situation of having to educate him as to what is going on. Which leads us to ...

"Secondly, Wouldn't his brain grown at the same rate then? So he probly should have taken speed classes when he turned 2 and done four semesters in one years, then started attending college at age 4 1/2. He would have been well on his way by age 9 at that rate, and not been too diferent from some college grads."

Wow ... that's rather an astute observation ... however the size and mass of the brain has little to do with the knowledge contained within. For the most part, learned behaviors are imprinted on the brain as lingering traces of the fired synapses. He would still have to be taught just like anyone else and, like everyone else, would still be subject to issues with retaining what was taught to him. There are high school students who are perfectly normal but cannot grasp algebraic formulas. There are also adults (who have fully developed brains, as you suggest) who cannot drive a car, regardless of whether or not they have training (don't believe me? watch other people on the road ... )

Who really cares??? It's a sweet, unnecessarily analysed kids movie...c'mon!

I know that this post is dead, but just in case anyone reads it late, like me, its important to note that this is a real disease. Also, it is relatively accurately represented. The disease is called Progeria. Its a tragic condition that causes childrens bodies to become prematurely old. More information can be found here: http://www.progeriaresearch.org/about_progeria.html

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Well, this movie *is* a little off. For instance, people with progeria (the "rapid aging disease") don't visibly age like normal people. So it's not like a person with progeria is going to look like a healthy, full-grown sixteen-year-old at the age of three. People with progeria actually experience limited growth, so they remain child-like. People with progeria typically have very small faces and pinched noses. People with progeria suffer from alopecia (baldness) all their lives. They age six to eight times faster than people without progeria and develop wrinkled skin typically by the age of four or five. They typically have very fragile bones, like those of an elderly person.

Also, most people with progeria don't live past 14-16 years of age, but the longest a person with progeria has lived is 29 years.