If I Had Wings

If I had Wings is a family film about a blind kid who wants to be a runner but needs a running partner. He teams up with a troubled youth in a bid to win a race.

To get the negatives out the way first this is a film we have seen a million times before, the troubled kid with a good heart, the bad guy Jock, the standard family film plot template.

For all it's predictability this still manages to be a very enjoyable and well above average film of its genre. This is mainly due to an excellent cast who all do a good job with the script they have. In particular Jaren Brandt Bartlett who is superb as the charismatic bad boy turned good.

The film is fast paced and flows well and there are some well executed laughs to be had along with the drama had as well. This is a film that can be enjoyed by all the family, a pretty rare occurrence these days. Highly recommended.

I absolutely loved this film!! Wonderful story. Great chemistry with the leads. Beautiful ending! Simply incredible!!

This was a really heartwarming film that struck a lot of the right chords: overcoming a disability; having tolerance and respect for persons who are different in terms of culture, race, or ability; and meeting the challenges of single parenthood. During the screening I attended in Vancouver in April, young people in the audience were well engaged and, in the climactic race scene, cheering on the hero. It's a well-paced film with high production values.

One of the challenges of a classic overcoming-the-odds film is making the characters and their situation believable. This film achieved a good level of credibility by giving all characters, both the good and the bad, a mix of traits. The hero has his faults, just as the less likable characters have their moments of grace and remorse.

The film is well acted throughout. It was a testament to Richard Harmon's acting that, in a Q&A session following the screening I attended, one of the audience asked whether the actor is blind or sighted.

OK this movie really could have been good. If they had done one ounce of research about cross country. I am a high school cross country runner and I was pretty much just laughing and shaking my head, everything was just so painfully inaccurate. First of all, in a race they we all basically jogging. And cross country teams actually have uniforms like other sports, believe it or not. And real life cross country meets usually have 200+ runners in one race. In the movie the meets looked more like a church picnic and some little kids running around. And for crying out loud, you don't train for a race by running the course as fast as you can every day. And I know they wanted to have a jock character in it like other sports movies but trust me. Jocks don't run cross country. They play basketball or football. Cross country runners are usually awkward nerds. So yeah. Next time try talking two someone who know jack about what your movie is about.

I enjoyed the film and the various story lines presented kept me interested and kept the plot moving. A good watch.

As a former XC runner myself, the director could have done much more research into the sport. Many facts/reality are not there, had they been I would have notched this up a bit higher. Also made the 'villain' in the movie difficult to believe because the sport doesn't typically attract those type of jocks.

The back-and-forth between the runners assigned to each other was what I found most intriguing.

Good cinematography that helped tell a well-written story.