Highly Overrated But Still Good

Blistering performances.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Everything about this movie is 1st-rate. The cinematography is simply stunning. The musical score is perfect for the progress of the story. The casting is spot on- Anna Paquin truly shines, and has the best support possible. And the story- oh... well, you just have to see it. There's something for everyone here, young and old- sorrow, inspiration, humor, hope, redemption, injustice, and a thrilling race against time. It's infused with characters that are real, but it's when the geese take wing that this film really soars. That the flight scenes are done almost exclusively without special effects will open your eyes, and you can get lost in the clouds! No matter your age, you should see this movie.

When I was a kid in the 90s, I've heard a lot about this film. It was in the previews for the Jumanji, Matilda, and Madeline tapes. Then, from late 2008 to early 2009, I finally saw the entire film and it was really beautiful. It delivered what it promised. The comedy, the drama, and the flying sequences. And did I forget to mention that the geese are so adorable when they were babies? Anyway, on it's 20th anniversary, Fly Away Home still holds up. The story is really original and the concept was nothing I've ever seen before. A girl named Ammy, who copes with her mother's death in a tragic accident, finds a bunch of baby geese and trains them to fly. Her father decides to help her and as the geese grew up, he and his friends invented mechanical flying geese. Once they did that, they chartered a course that would bring the geese back home. The comedy and drama is just great and was perfectly balanced. The writing is superb, the pacing is tight, the music score from Mark Isham is beautiful, and the flying sequences are well done. The best part, however, would have to go to the acting. Overall, everyone gives a great performance with the best coming from Jeff Daniels and Anna Pacquin. Fly Away Home became an instant classic when it was first released at the time of blockbusters and it still holds up 20 years later. It's a perfectly example of flawless storytelling on it's own right. This deserves a recommendation to those who haven't seen it yet. :)

Fly Away Home begins on a quiet note. A car driving in the rain, mother and daughter exchanging glances. The focus goes from the windscreen to the road, and back again. Suddenly and surprisingly, violence strikes.This introduces a common theme in children's adventure stories - the loss of one or both parents. It's the very same device that Ballard used in his first film, The Black Stallion, and would use once again in Duma. He's placed no inherent value in it as a plot device, however, stating that "If you're going to have a parent die, that has to be the emotional core of the movie". And that's just what it is in this case. Amy (Anna Paquin) doesn't walk off to have fun with the animals simply forgetting her past. But, in a way, this makes the focus less on nature and more on the characters, which I'm not entirely certain was Ballard's original intention. After all, his first two pictures featured next to no human interaction, and this very thing was what made the production of "Wind" so bothersome for him.After watching Fly Away Home for the first time in nearly ten years, I was struck by its high dramatic quality. Just a week earlier, I had watched another, inferior animal film (also starring Jeff Daniels) called "Because of Winn-Dixie". I realized then just how hard it is to strike a balance between what is 'cute' and what is real. The aforementioned film dove headlong into the 'cute' side of things.At the sake of becoming too academic, this is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. Caleb Deschanel's photography is effortless in appearance, giving the sensation of weightlessness far more often than in the actual flight sequences. Carroll Ballard has had great success in choosing the best people to photograph his films, and this is a great reunion for the two since their last collaboration on The Black Stallion. Mark Isham takes a totally different approach from his stunning minimalist score of Never Cry Wolf, reaching for - and sometimes - tugging at your heartstrings. In fact, the music is really quite spectacular throughout, except for a rather long and out of place interlude to "10,000 Miles" by Mary Chapin Carpenter. This would have been better suited earlier in the flight, it's current placement feeling a little off. It seems reminiscent of Linda Ronstadt's song "Winter Light" in a 1993 version of "The Secret Garden" (That film, by the way, I highly recommend for fans of Carroll Ballard).As this film progresses, it moves beyond the relationship aspect as Amy makes a discovery in the forest - geese eggs. In a way, her rescuing and raising of these orphaned chicks helps her to heal from her own loss. At its heart, this film is about loss and rebirth. This takes the story of Fly Away Home into new territory, less about the human aspect, and more about nature.All the supporting cast is good and effective (especially Terry Kinney), but Jeff Daniels and Anna Paquin are the central dramatic point which the other actors center around. I've never seen a more lively or energetic performance by Daniels - it's the sort of role he's always excelled at. Paquin, on the other hand, is in a rather uncommon role for her, a simple, more unrestrained character. Without her, or another exactly suited child (of which I know none), the film's dramatic half would have collapsed in on itself. But for all the geese, the drama and the cinematography, it's the moments of quiet that stand out.As the film comes to a close, there are certain factors that bring in a lack of realism. The human and media response to the flight south seems as if borrowed from another film. This perhaps brings the story to a bit of an anti-climax. The 'evil corporate developer' subplot seems lifted from other, less imaginative films. Regardless of the slightly weak ending, perhaps no other conclusion would work better, not without a significantly longer running time.It's a delicately balanced film, and I greatly respect its director for that. There's no immature jokes, no animals being too cute, or overwrought melodrama. For the most part, it feels natural, and the characters act like real people. I appreciate that in a youth-oriented film. I've long since grown out of other movies such as Free Willy, but this film has stuck with me since childhood - and I appreciate it more now than when I first saw it as a kid myself.

As a film student, I naturally started to fast forward through the opening titles to get to the film. Then I had to rewind.The viewer gets kicked in the privates in the first minute of the titles. Then again two minutes later.A lot of the film is shot in the golden hours just after sunrise and just before sunset, making for some great imagery.The story is pretty adult for a family film. Familiar family issues are not candy-coated in the script.As for being believable, it is based on a true story, and yes, the amazing fridge is from a real design by the inventor at the heart of the true story.The final chapter contains simply superb flying shots worthy of National Geographic.I don't think there was any time wasted on sentimental stuff, just enough to get the point stated, then immediately move on.Worth seeking out the collectors addition for the extras that explain how close to reality the basic concept is - teaching geese to fly home.Good film, well made, great acting, superb photography.Why not a ten? The story was based too much on reality - however amazing. The photography was great, but not ground breaking.