Fly Away Home

Rating:
Summary: Great Family Movie with Stunning Cinematography
Review: This film has much of what perfect family films should have. Anna Paquin gives a quietly perfect performance as a girl whose mother has died, leaving her to go live with her estranged, and somewhat strange, father. Jeff Daniels plays the free-spirit, gruff, eccentric, semi-recluse inventor who is Anna's father. The awkwardness upon her arrival is almost tangible. What saves her, and the father-daughter relationship, is an orphaned family of Canada geese. Anna's character finds them in a patch of woods being developed into a subdivision or commercial complex, they imprint on her (Conrad Lorenz, the ethologist who figured out imprinting, would love this movie), and she has to teach the goslings how to be geese.

The lessons go well until Fall, when it's time for the young but full-grown geese to start thinking about migrating. How does a pre-teen girl teach young geese how to fly? She gets her eccentric inventor of a father to . . . well, I won't give everything away. Let's just say that this story has its ups and downs, but has a happy, but realistic ending. In the meantime, the process of teaching the geese to fly in the film leads to some incredible cinemagraphic sequences. The viewers get a bird's-eye view of geese flying, and feels as if the geese are right next to them.

Is this a complex, mulit-layed film full of sophistication and sub-plots? No way! This is a straightforward film about bonding and love - father-daughter bonding and love, as well as human-animal bonding and and love. "Fly Away Home" is a great movie to have at home and pull out on a rainy day to watch with your kids, from about age four up.

Rating:
Summary: Wholesome, Modern, Joyous
Review: In "Short Cuts," Robert Altman suggested, correctly perhaps, that the culture at large is coarse when it comes to caring for the young and innocent. All the more reason, then, to welcome a film like this one, which champions nature, nurtur(ing), and family--however constructed. It's the old hero's journey carried out on the fresh wings of a girl. Fly away home.

Rating:
Summary: Have the tissues ready!
Review: I am watching this movie as I write this review. From the opening credits, you get a sense that this movie will offer something more than most movies. The music by Mark Isham is haunting. My only peave is that a soundtrack album was never released for this gorgeous score. Anna Paquin and Jeff Daniels give stunning performances. You will have a renewed faith in humankind and movies.

Rating:
Summary: touching and powerful, yet some big weaknesses
Review: a really touching and powerful film, and it brought me to tears several time, and i couldn't help but admire the spunk of the girl, and also of her father, and from his desire to connect with her, against the odds, against the laws...

things i didn't like: i hated that they sexualized the 13 year old girl. not to say she wasn't sexual just by nature of her age, but they purposefully made her into more of a sex object than they had to, especially with the shower scene - entirely unnecessary, gratuitous and teasing. i also hate that they made her have a subtle mini-pseudo-romance with her father's 20-something male friend. i think this sends the wrong message to kids, and they know kids are hungry for this kind of info and fantasy, and as such that it sells movies - shame on the movie-makers. put it this way, if that character was a 13 year old boy, they would never dare or even consider doing the things they did with the girl character. also, i didn't like how they "subtly" played up the sexual tension between the father and the daughter, such as having him run around in his jockey underwear - entirely unnecessary.

last gripe: much of the acting, especially in the first third of the film,... so fake! the father's girlfriend was poor, and girl often came across as utterly unreal, and much of the dialogue was badly written. the father, jeff daniels, however, carried the show, and was strong from beginning to end.

Rating:
Summary: good flick
Review: Somebody help me out here, at the end of the movie Sarah Maclaclan sings a song about going home again. Anybody know the title of this song. [e-mail] thanks

Rating:
Summary: OK
Review: I had to watch this so many times b4 and it got kinda boring, but it was ok the 1st time, It seemed kinda long though. Its about a young girl who raises some ducklings and her journey to fly them away when they are grown.

Rating:
Summary: A Touching Film
Review: A wonderful film that exemplifies how a relationship between a father and daughter should be whether it be in a single parent home or two parent home. Not only will you laugh at the innocence of a child, but you will also cry at how real the emotions are. A supurb film for adults and children.

Rating:
Summary: Sets a new standard for Family viewing!
Review: FLy Away Home is one of the few movies that can inspire people. It shows people who truly care about animals and want to help them. This movie is Directed to perfection by Carroll Ballard(The Black Stallion). He is one of the most talented directors around. When he and Caleb Deschanel, the cimomentropher, team up their is no better duo in hollywood. Caleb also did The black Stallion. this movie is one of the most beautifully acted movies I have ever seen. Jeff Daniels performs the dad with amazing sensitivity and depth. this was his best and most serious performance. Anna Paquin is phenomenol as the daughter. She captures the emotional shock of lossing a loved one with what seems a minimal amount of effort. Paquin herself seems to evolve with her character, as the film progresses. Paquin proves that she will be a staying power in hollywood. Paquin has a natural acting ability that few posess. Daniels and Paquin are the best father-daughter duo to come around in a long time. They understood each other and their characters. They click the moment they are on screen together. The film is wonderful and you can't help loving it. This film reaches to a big audience and is definently an instant classic. This is a movie you will WANT to see many times over! Bravo to everyone who helped make it, you should be proud. The only problem with the DVD is That IT IS NOT IN WIDESCREEN! ALL of CARROLL BALLARD'S FILMS ARE MENT TO BE SEEN THAT WAY! BUT SEE THE MOVIE ANYWAY DEFINENTLY!

Rating:
Summary: Anna Paquin is sublime in this film!
Review: Carroll Ballard may not be a household name, but he has created some of the most magical children's films of the few 20 years. His "The Black Stallion" was based on the beloved Walter Farley novel and was considered one of the best films of the 1970s. He followed that film with "Never Cry Wolf," one of the best live-action films ever to come from the Disney Company. "Fly Away Home" is one of his latest offerings, and as with his earlier films, it is a magical look at life and nature through more innocent eyes.

The film stars Anna Paquin, the young actress from "The Piano" and the current young superheroine from "X-Men," as a young girl whose mother dies in a car accident and who goes to Canada to live with her estranged father, an eccentric inventor. At first, the young girl is angry and reserved and shuns even her father, but she slowly begins to rediscover a love for life when she adopts a small flock of orphan gooselings. The movie follows her almost maternal kinship with the gooselings and the warming trust she begins to develop for her father and how they eventually teach the geese to migrate (hence the title fly away home).

Anna Paquin is quite good in this film and depicts a vulnerable side to her character. She is certainly one of the best actresses of her generation. Jeff Daniels has an amusing turn as a father who doesn't quite know how to deal with the new daughter in his life. Dana Delany (from TV's "China Beach") also has a role as Jeff Daniels' faithful girlfriend. The overall film has a wonderful look to it, and it was nominated for an oscar for best cinematography. While the film deals with some sad issues (death of a parent, the stages of grief), it is nonetheless a truly enjoying film and one of the more under-rated children's films from the 1990s.

In fact, it is a pity that more films like "Fly Away Home" are not made. Hollywood tends to produce so many tepid, painful-to-watch children's movies that the true gems slip through our fingers. If you liked "The Secret Garden" or "A Little Princess" or "The Iron Giant" then you will find much to like in this film. All of these recent films are superb family entertainment and were sadly overlooked.

I watched this film on VHS and fell in love with it instantly. I would have bought it on DVD except for the absurd decision on the film company's part to make the DVD pan-and-scan only. Any film that was nominated for best cinematography deserves a widescreen treatment on DVD. So, by all means, watch this movie! But if you want it on DVD for your collection, wait until the film company regains its senses and offers the widescreen format.

Rating:
Summary: Beautifull !
Review: Yeah, I agree with our fellows that viewing in WIDESCREEN is awesome. The only version I've seen is in LD format ( Yes, Laser Disc ). Carroll Ballard's movies has this kind of problem. I don't know why. There's another of his movie that I wanna see in widescreen format: WIND. As far I know it has a LD version in that format. Anyway, Carrol Ballard's hand is very good. The way he does storytelling is very good. It survives even in full screen.