Radio Flyer

This bittersweet slice of magic realism had a checkered production history (director/writer replaced) and tanked at the box office, but it's a helluva film.

Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazzello are pre-teen brothers whose flaky mom (Lorraine Bracco) shacks up with a mean-spirited alcoholic (Adam Baldwin). During his drinking bouts, Baldwin physically abuses Mazzello and manipulates him into remaining silent about his situation. But when Wood cottons on to what's happening, the boys put their heads together and hatch a fantastique solution to Mazzello's devastating dilemma.

I love films that mix fantasy and dark reality. They are rarely successful financially ("Lawn Dogs" is a similar example), but they are usually original and intriguing.

The drunk Baldwin is shot from a low, child's perspective and his head is deliberately lopped off below the top of frame. This device allows us to judge him purely by his actions and as a totally physicalized beast. Both Wood and Mazzello are excellent, and they pull us effortlessly into their dark, frightening world.

The "radio flyer" of the title is a small red wagon kids transport their belongings in. Here it transports a dream.

Seriously interesting stuff.

An imaginative film that opens the imagination of one soul. A young boy and his brother are having a tough life. They suffer an abusive, alcholic father as well as neighbourhood bullies with only their dependable dog as protection.

To escape their existance they build the 'Radio Flyer' a machine they believe will fly and protect them from their troubles.

Good acting and a clever concept will leave you feeling fulfilled however the ending is relatively far fetched.

A good movie.

In reply to "State of Confusion" The dogs injuries do seem to disappear rather abruptly, but that may have only been an error in continuity. But, as for the kids trying to build a plane out of junk, it's just a simple matter of imagination. These are two very young kids who have extremely active imaginations and they must rely on those imaginations to keep themselves from being exposed to the reality of the level of abuse that goes on in their home from their stepfather. As for the stepfather, it's very interesting that the director chose to no show his face. That makes him seem more monstrous. If you show his face, then that character becomes a person and not just this "monster" who is terrorizing the childhood of these two innocent children. By showing only the concequences of his abuse and not focusing scenes on the abuse itself, the children then become the main focus of the movie. This film has no loose ends, but runs just as a father's tale to his children would. It has embelleshments. This is a fine American classic.

I sobbed watching this film. The best thing they did was never show the step dads face. He was a monster, and the boys knew it. You can only hope all child beaters will gain some shame from this.

When I first saw this movie, I first started to hate it because of the violence of abuse, but what got to me, was the music of the movie, and the acting that went with it. I, admit, a dream about a talking buffalo was a little weird, but what got to me was the music through the dream, and the VERY COOL performances of Elijah Wood, as the confused brother, torn between about what he knows, and what he can not say. Promises not to say as a special PACT with his younger brother, who tells him not to say anything to the mother.. A BRILLANT DEBUT of Joseph Mazzello, who moves you with the music, as he see his destiny, before it happens, of getting away from the King, the Abuser, by building a airplane, out of a toy wagon. Let me tell, nothing gets you like the end of the movie, and the younger brother is ready to take off the flyer, they built. One brother gives his favorite jacket, as sign of love to remember him by. Out of *****, I give this movie a *****.