Away and Back

In Oregon State, Jack (Jason Lee) is a struggling widower of three kids. The youngest, a girl Frankie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones), misses her mother every day and the bedtime reading of her favorite book, The Trumpet of the Swans. Dad, most times, only has time for a chapter. Also, Papa tries to keep his kids busy, making their own lunches and doing household chores, as he operates his door making carpentry business. Meanwhile, a bird-biologist, Jennie (Minka Kelly) nurses a swan back to health from a gun shot wound. All too soon, the kids favorite pair of Trumpeter swans come back to the pond near their home and lay eggs. Frankie and her middle brother row out to take a look but get too close. The swans, very protective and fierce, break her brother's arm. Then, tragedy happens. A power line kills the mother bird and Frankie takes the eggs to incubate at home. Realizing she is over her head, she eventually gets Jennie on the phone. Seemingly very disturbed, Jennie comes and confiscates the eggs, lecturing the children about the endangered species and her job to protect it. However, after this initially gruff meeting, Jennie does let the children come see the three hatched cygnets. Plus, the children are thrilled when Jennie comes to place them back in "their" pond, as father swan is still there. Its not a simple task and stretches into weeks. As Jennie lives in a trailer close to the family, romance and a new beginning may be in the offing. Then, Frankie comes up missing just as the swans are migrating. Will she be found? This lovely film has it all, lovely cast, scenery, script, direction, and gloriously lovely SWANS. Go away to the store and bring it BACK NOW.

My wife and I enjoy movies that relate to life, have some serious content and some humor. This movie has all three. The characters don't blow up anything and there are no shoot outs, state of the art weapons or robots set on death and destruction. In spite of this, the story is captivating, the characters very well done and the storyline realistic. I recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys a good movie. James Welch Henderson, Arkansas 3/16/2021

Cool to see the trumpeter swans mentioned in Fly Away Home. This is a good, clean movie. But we're never told what Minka Kelly's problem was at the start. No focus is given to her bonding with the sons. And we're never told what the oldest son's problem is, or how it's resolved.

Bought it for Minka Kelly and wasn't surprised, she hit it out of the park again, she's always so nice and wholesome and likeable, been a fan of hers for a little minute, watched most of her movies and FNL in the last few months, and am a fan of hers now, there's not much she can't do, Searching For Sonny as the protagonist, The Roommate as the victim, Papa Hemingway as the quiet put upon girlfriend. She's great along with the whole cast of Friday Night Lights in her tv debut, hope Hallmark does a few more with her, I think she's looked over a little which is a shame, who doesn't like her? Have The Beach House with her and Andy McDowell to watch in the coming days, Hallmark is a nice surprise to enjoy as opposed to my usual thriller, drama, crime and film noir tastes.

Jason Lee did a decent job, every time I see him I think of Enemy of the State, Dreamcatcher, IT, he annoys me from time to time but does well here playing the father and widower, it doesn't get too deep or depressed, the story is pretty lightly done, simple and kept you interested for the most part, a nice family or safe bet for kids to watch on a quiet day and a nice happy ending as usual for Hallmark.

This is not the kind of movie I would normally take time for because I find made for TV movies to be heavy on message, slanted and cliche ridden. The acting is usually hit and miss. But being a Jason Lee fan and slowly becoming a Minka Kelly fan I wanted to give it a try. This one was none of those things I feared, even though a film about a motherly woman temporarily joining a motherless family would usually be filled with lines like "you can't bond with kids for awhile and then leave them." Minka Kelly does just that but without the same cliche-ridden drama. A big reason to watch this is a love of nature and many people understand human devotion to birds that fill the world with song and color and endless fascinating behaviors. The fact that they came from dinosaurs is incredible to think about. The director uses real film so the colors and photography are endlessly gorgeous. The locales really lend themselves to film. Even though the inevitable romance was a no-brainer, it was realistic and engaging. Both characters are strong and independent, but they blend out of necessity and natural moments of commonality. The tension-filled drama toward the end was believable and easy to handle. The ending was great and I felt like the score added a lot to all of the scenes.