Qualcosa di inaspettato

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.

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 usual Hallmark Saturday Night romance. It seems to be a Hall of Fame movie so that's not surprising. There is some romance, but as is often the case with a cute precocious kid, the female lead and the kid are the real relationship focus. And add the swans.

Jennie was a real witch to everyone at first but quickly softened. Minka Kelly worked well with both Jason Lee as Jack and Maggie Elizabeth Jones as Frankie. The kids lost their mom a couple years ago to cancer so Jack wants to protect them from further losses in real life and nature, despite seeming to fall for Jennie.

There's some drama towards the end. I didn't expect it to play out this way, so that's another plus in the fresh story column.

Nice story for the whole family. Kids will probably like this because of the Swans.

Like a lot of fellows, I became a fan of Minka Kelly when she played a high school cheer leader on the TV series Friday Night Lights. The good news is that she is just as convincing and attractive in this film, and the story line is something that the whole family will enjoy. In fact, the quality of the acting, and the great production values combine to make this one of Hallmark's best productions. Jason Lee plays the widowed father of three with just the right blend of manly resolve tempered by personal loss, and the knowledge that his children really need a mother. His youngest child, "Frankie" is played to perfection by ten-year-old Maggie Elizabeth Jones, and his son "Kyle" played by Jaren Lewison is very good in a lesser role. My only quibble with this film is its confusing geography, which traces an established migratory bird flyway south from Cheney, Washington to Wallowa Lake in north-eastern Oregon, but was mostly filmed in Alberta, Canada.