An uplifting movie

"The Boy Who Could Fly"
Overall Rating: ****½


Believe it or not, as recently as 1986, Hollywood was still producing nice films. "The Boy Who Could Fly" feels like a film that was made 40 or more years ago. It has no explosions, nobody gets shot, and nobody runs around naked. It is charming, funny in many places, and touching in many others.

Milly Michaelson (Lucy Deakins), along with her younger brother Louis (Fred Savage) and her mother Charlene (Bonnie Bedelia), are a family in crisis. With the recent death of Millie's father, the family must move to a new neighborhood, and Charlene must return to work for the first time in many years. Soon after moving day, they start learning about their new next door neighbor, Eric (Jay Underwood). Eric's parents were killed in a plane crash some years ago and he's being raised by his alcoholic uncle Hugo (Fred Gwynne) and, to a certain extent, his high-school English teacher Mrs. Sherman (Coleen Dewhurst). Making things tougher, Eric is apparently autistic: he has never spoken a word, and has a habit of sitting on window ledges and rooftops and pretending to fly. The strange thing is that some people, albeit generally unreliable sources, claim he actually can fly.

"The Boy Who Could Fly" is a charming movie. The pace isn't all that fast, especially in the beginning, but the film wouldn't work if it were. Still, the movie flows smoothly from one scene to another; the connection between Milly and Eric grows slowly, but effectively. The story is intriguing--there's no way Eric can fly, and yet, you wonder. A nice subplot is also introduced right away, and carried through right to the end: Louis is a third-grader who just wants to get around the block--though he's thwarted by the neighborhood bully; the subplot serves nicely as an echo for the emotional level of the story. Nick Castle's writing and directing are very effective. It would have been very easy for the story to become either silly or boring, but it doesn't. About all I can really say is that it works.

The cast is absolutely wonderful. Lucy Deakins is very good as Milly. The supporting cast is also generally very good. Fred Gwynne and Mindy Cohn (who plays Milly's obnoxious friend Geneva) are excellent, and Fred Savage positively steals the show. The real star is Jay Underwood; Eric is disturbed and melancholy, yet not hopeless; if that combination weren't difficult enough, Eric is also mute. Jay Underwood pulls off the role brilliantly.

Though it isn't really intended as a children's movie, on the whole, "The Boy Who Could Fly" is generally safe for the whole family. There is a little bad language (including some used by Louis), but not that much. There is also an episode where Milly and Geneva get drunk, though both of them are teenagers--but not without consequences: Milly's mother catches them, and the next morning, Milly is apparently in trouble and definitely hung over.

A couple of things bothered me slightly about "The Boy Who Could Fly." Louis goes through a rather sudden character transformation at one point, and I'm not sure it works. Further, while the film's slow pace is necessary and generally works, there are some places where I felt it was a little too slow.

Yet, as Milly's family recovers from its loss, "The Boy Who Could Fly" recovers from its problems. "The Boy Who Could Fly" will lift you up.

Title: "The Boy Who Could Fly"
Release date: 1986
MPAA rating: PG
Overall rating: ****½
Aprox. run time: 108 min.
Director: Nick Castle
Writer: Nick Castle
Stars: Lucy Deakins, Jay Underwood

Original URL: http://www.geocities.com/reviewsbyjohn/Boy_Fly.htm
Added to blog site: 7/26/09