Built To Spill
The synopsis of Fly Away Home is that of a typical Saturday morning Disney-esque adventure film. Amy, a 13 year old living in New Zealand, is involved in a car crash in which her mother is killed. As a result she is forced to live with her estranged father in rural Canada. Predictably, she doesn’t fit in and spends her time wandering aimlessly through the local forest pining for her mother. It is during one of these walks that she comes across an abandoned nest of goose eggs and brings them home to hatch. This leads to sixteen chicks wandering around the house believing Amy is their "Mother Goose". They will not migrate south until she shows them the way, something for which a lack of wings proves a major obstacle.
The leads and the director, however, suggest that Fly Away Home may not be as superficial as the usual half-term fare. Caroll Ballard is well known for his detailed documentaries and films on animals, including The Black Stallion, and has a reputation for capturing striking natural landscapes on film. He manages this here with the mix of forests and plains of Southern Ontario viewed from the air. Amy is played by Oscar winner Anna Paquin and her father by versatile Jeff Daniels. As a result, you begin to expect more than cute geese chicks floating in the toilet and taking showers and start to look for some character and plot development, which is where the film is disappointing.
Paquin and Daniels’ developing relationship is sacrificed for more shots of geese attempting take-off, while sub-plots are introduced and then immediately dismissed as if there was too little time. There is an Animal Welfare Officer who needlessly steals the birds, only for them to be rescued in the next scene. Daniels has a new woman in his life whose approach to Amy is restricted to the worst clichť of all, "I’m not trying to replace your mother." Eventually you stop looking for detail and sit back with all the eight year olds laughing at the geese.
Fly Away Home will probably appeal only to animal-lovers or those with bored kids to keep amused. Saying that, consider watching it on TV on a Saturday morning in a couple of years.
Chris
