The Boy Who Could Fly

I have loved this movie since I was a child. It was one for the first movies I saw with a person who had Autism. The movie deals with the subject matter in a very respectful way. All of the characters are very realistic and very easy to relate to. Each character was worthy of caring about. This movie inspired me to help in middle school in the peer to peer program. It helped me to broaden my horizons and see the beauty in each and every person. Jay Underwood and Lucy Deakins are wonderful in their roles. Bonnie Bedelia is outstanding as always. Fred Savage is cute as ever.

Milly Michaelson (Lucy Deakins), her little brother Louis (Fred Savage) and mother Charlene (Bonnie Bedelia) move into their new home. She gets a new friend in pushy Geneva Goodman (Mindy Cohn) while Louis gets bullied by Geneva's brother and his friends. Charlene has a difficult time to start anew after losing her husband. Eric Gibb (Jay Underwood) is a mysterious mute boy living in the room facing Milly. His drunken uncle Hugo (Fred Gwynne) is his guardian. People think Eric is autistic. He started to believe that he could fly at 5 when his parents died in a plane crash. Milly wonders if he could truly fly. Their teacher Mrs. Sherman (Colleen Dewhurst) works to keep him from being institutionalized with Milly's help. It's a wonderful sensitive film that is good for the whole family. Lucy Deakins is endearing and sweet. There is a gentle magic about the movie. It's very romantic in the simple childlike way and also surprisingly funny. The family drama is poignant. It's a live action fairy tale.

As one other IMDb user noted here, this is a movie that would most likely not be made today. It's lacking in cynical attitudes and razzle- dazzle flash. But being raised in the era that this movie was made, I could appreciate the movie's sweet and gentle tone. I also thought that the cast did a very good job in making their characters believable and sympathetic. Still, this movie is far from perfect. A big problem I had was with the movie's length - it is almost two hours long. Though it could have been worse, since there is evidence here that the original cut of the movie ran much longer and was whittled down in the editing room to its present length. (Evidence: the bullies that show up in the first few minutes of the movie subsequently disappear for more than an hour before showing up again.) Also, the movie seemed to be spinning its wheels over and over, with one scene after another advancing the plot little or not at all. This isn't a BAD movie - it has charm and warmth - but I think director/writer Nick Castle should have either reviewed his script a few more times before filming, or invited outside input to review the script.

In an atmosphere of fantasy, the movie explores several real human issues. The story centers on a mother (Bonnie Bedelia), her young teenage daughter (Lucy Deakins), and her pre-teen son (Fred Savage) as they struggle to cope after the beloved father's sudden passing. Their grief is intensified by the manner of his death and their almost immediately having to adjust to a new life, a new home, a new neighborhood, and for the kids, a new school and new friends. Into this mix enters Eric (Jay Underwood), the apparently autistic teenage boy next door, who is coping with demons of his own as a result of his parents' sudden death in an airplane crash. So grief is involved, and adjustment, and trying to fit in, and acceptance of human differences, and courage, and love - love within a family group and among people, as well as real boy/girl love. Writer-director Nick Castle deals with these issues with respectful sensitivity, as does the excellent ensemble cast of Lucy Deakins, Jay Underwood, Bonnie Bedelia, Fred Savage, Colleen Dewhurst, Fred Gwynne, and Mindy Cohn. That fantasy might be important to plot movement shouldn't be surprising, considering the movie's title. However, whether that fantasy is allegorical or real, or both, is in the eyes of the beholder. In any case, it's a warm and poignant tale, and it deserves a high place in the literature of motion pictures.

I was a teenager when this film first came out and never got round to seeing it back then. It was literally after reading a recommendation on an 80's website that i watched it this morning online and had to write a review. This film had me captivated from the beginning titles, right the way through to the closing credits. You cannot help but become engrossed in this film due to the quality of the cast and the soundtrack. I won't go into details about the plot of the film as other reviews have already covered that but all i will say is that i'm a 38 year old guy who doesn't lose control of his emotions often but i cried a hell of a lot at the final scene between the two lead characters. If you haven't seen this gem of a movie then don't wait as long as i did to get round to seeing it. You will fall in love with it, i guarantee that.

The boy who could fly was and still is one of my favourite films and my feelings about this film haven't changed since. It opens as Millie and her family are starting there new life in town and moving in to their new home. As they are settling in Millie sees a boy called Eric he lives just opposite her he doesn't speak and shows no emotions. But one thing he can do is fly. Millie befriends him and tries to get to know him better and slowly he begins to open up to her. They fall in love and it's so sweet and heart warming This is an underrated gem from the 80's.Some people may have missed this film but I recommend it to anyone looking for something with a heart and a great story. The music by Bruce Broughton is just beautiful and wonderful and the song in the closing credits walking on air is just fantastic. This film has a positive message about dreams and believing that things can happen it's one of the best films I've ever seen. They just don't make films like this anymore.

I remember being intrigued by this movie when finding it on IMDb. For me the relative innocence of 80s movies and childhood nostalgia made it a much better, if absolutely unrealistic movie. It could be seen as some sort of modern fairy tale, not be considered seriously, but with some sort of hidden meaning/moral. I can relate to this movie because of some similar events, fears and dreams from my own life; of course like most movies, this one is exaggerated a bit, and mixes fantasy(people's dreams) with real life. This is why some 80s movies are so fun to watch, because they are absolutely unrealistic escapism and fantasy to the max, cheesy and overly optimistic as some may consider, but so is belief in God and Lord Jesus Christ, which i do share by God's grace. This may be due to a partial return to conservative and Christian values that the world had in the 80s, as a backlash against confused and crisis-ridden 70s. The film is about a family struggling with their lives after the tragic death of their father, who chose suicide instead of fighting with cancer. But no matter how hard one's life is, there is surely someone whose life is worse, so their neighbor is an alcoholic man with an autistic nephew, whose parents have died in a plane crash. While this movie is not Christian, in showing no love to or mention of God, it is similar to Jesus' second greatest commandment "Love your neighbor as yourself". The girl Milly, while doing her best to be the family cook, actually finds time and care to help the autistic boy next door/window Eric. As many 80s movies' characters, Milly doesn't have much flaws, except for underage alcohol drinking; though i expected her to breakdown into "i'm getting no respect/real life" fit, guess i've seen too many 90s-00s "overdriven realistic" movies, where teenagers are too often rebellious and egoistical. As the Milly's mother and brother get through their work and bully problems, Milly and Eric get romantically close in an innocent way and get to fly holdings hands to the amazement of the whole city. Then Eric flies away. THE END. CONCLUSION: The whole flying, may be a metaphor for the first love, with Milly and Eric, being high on the wings of love. It may also be an aspiration to what is true, noble, right.. as in New Testament, Philippians 4:8. The fact that Eric then flied away, may mean that Milly and Eric separated and never seen each other again, or that Eric may have fallen off the roof and did die, which sounds sad, but possible. Thus many people could relate to it, adding their own life stories about their first love, life tragedies or mental problems.

This is one of the movies I think of when I think of my childhood, you could not make a film like this nowdays. The performances are so authentic, and genuine, it makes for a remarkable experience. Wow, I'm in awe of its beliefs. Imagine if you had the ability to fly......

The Boy Who Could Fly is one of those rare family films that mixes just a touch of fantasy with a truly down-to-Earth dramatic story. Following the death of Bedelia's husband, she moves her family into a new neighborhood next door to an autistic young man (Underwood). Deakins gains interest in Underwood's silent world of thought while attempting to keep things stable at home. Unusual things begin to happen around Underwood. While life seemingly falls apart for her family, Deakins and the audience are irresistably drawn into Underwood's world and we begin to question if his apparent dream to fly isn't more than just a fantasy. The acting in this film is superb, especially silent Underwood who conveys more thought and emotion with his eyes, face and body than the actors who speak. Bruce Broughton's melodious score is heartwarming and delivers full enchantment for the "flying?" scenes. (The main theme is so enchanting, the Walt Disney company has used it to open every film at their El Capitan theater in Hollywood, CA). This is a wonderful film for the entire family. Slight warning: for families that have recently lost a parent, it would be a good idea for the other parent to watch with the kiddies. And although they may find themselves dealing with the emotion of their trauma, they should feel much better when the film ends.

I just watched this movie for the first time in at least 20 years, and to my pleasant surprise, it lived up to my fondest memories of it. To be sure, there are flaws in the movie. I doubt that an autistic person with as severe a case of that disease as Eric would show so much response ... but then I suspect he was not truly autistic, but traumatized. A couple of scenes are cheesy or out of place (the dream sequence or the drinking scene in particular). Still, it is a touching film. Outside of Eric, the characters are very real and you feel for them. You feel the Louie's frustration, and the mother's fear, and Milly's uncertainty, and Uncle Hugo's disappointment in himself. Beyond that, the emotional touchstone is NOT Eric, and NOT the mystery surrounding him, but rather the struggle of the Michaelson's, and Milly in particular. Even before the dramatic conclusion, Milly has found hope through her relationship with Eric, and tries to share this the rest of her family. As the movie reaches it's (somewhat cheesy) conclusion, it feels good to see all the happy endings, but mostly feels good to see the characters with hope and optimism, regardless of the end result. As a child I remembered having a mini-crush on Milly. As an adult, I totally understand why. She is a beautiful character, not just her looks (where she is very pretty in a girl-next-door sort of way), but her care for her brother, her mother, her neighbor. The strength she shows in trying to keep everything together when she feels like its falling apart. Her kindness. Her gentleness. Her love. What a wonderful character, and what a character so deserving of being saved. Ultimately, the movie is very uplifting. It reaches beyond plausibility, but while the ending may have been necessary for some characters (Uncle Hugo), Milly had already grown into her happy ending, and I could feel her turning the tide for her mother and brother regardless. And much like the Shawshank Redemption delivers it's best line at the close, (MINOR SPOILER HERE)when Colleen Dewhurst says "Maybe if you dream hard enough and love long enough, anything is possible."