La tête dans les nuages

I also watched this movie as a young teenager. And it's a movie I will never forget, I just remember it changed me somehow, as a person.

Milly Michaelson (Lucy Deakins), her little brother Louis (Fred Savage) and mother Charlene (Bonnie Bedelia) move into their new home. She gets a new friend in pushy Geneva Goodman (Mindy Cohn) while Louis gets bullied by Geneva's brother and his friends. Charlene has a difficult time to start anew after losing her husband. Eric Gibb (Jay Underwood) is a mysterious mute boy living in the room facing Milly. His drunken uncle Hugo (Fred Gwynne) is his guardian. People think Eric is autistic. He started to believe that he could fly at 5 when his parents died in a plane crash. Milly wonders if he could truly fly. Their teacher Mrs. Sherman (Colleen Dewhurst) works to keep him from being institutionalized with Milly's help.

It's a wonderful sensitive film that is good for the whole family. Lucy Deakins is endearing and sweet. There is a gentle magic about the movie. It's very romantic in the simple childlike way and also surprisingly funny. The family drama is poignant. It's a live action fairy tale.

Sappy? Yeah, I guess at times… but this also mostly earns its big heart, and treats early teens with more far dignity and insight than most films.

Lucy Deakins is terrific as an intelligent, thoughtful 14 year old, who slowly grows to care for the autistic boy next door. He doesn't speak, but dreams only of flying away, a condition brought on by the deaths of his parents in a plane crash years before. Now he's in the care of an alcoholic uncle (the always wonderful Fred Gwynne), and the powers that be think he might be better off being institutionalized.

Almost all the acting is top notch, which is crucial in this character based story. Jay Underwood walks various fine lines as the titular boy, named Eric. By turns mysterious, locked in, charming he seems believable as an emotionally isolated adolescent as well as a possible source of magic. Colleen Dewhurst doesn't have a lot of screen time, but makes something rich and real out of a concerned teacher who doesn't want to see Eric locked away, knowing it will kill his spirit. And Bonnie Bedelia makes a touching warm and understanding widowed mom.

There are some scenes where the comic relief is more than a little forced, and a sub-plot about a little brother taking on neighborhood bullies seems grafted on from a far more Disney-ish film. But this Capra-esque gentle, bittersweet fantasy is a great 1980s film for tweens even today, and not a bad one for adults as well.

Like other commentators before me I watched this film as a young man and it touched me. In fact it moved me to tears. Now I am older I am still touched by the simplicity of this film and yet it is complex in showing us that from adults to children we all have things to deal with. The reason why Eric Gibb could fly is the most touching of all and in case there are people who do not believe that it is possible for one to sense tragedy in one close to you, believe me it's real.

As I pen this comment I have just watched it again and cannot help but feel that even twenty years plus since this movie came out there is the scope for a sequel 'The Man who could fly' I am not talking about a TV series but a one off movie showing our stars meeting again in adult hood. Something to think about. I liked this movie and I would like to own it on DVD should it be released for the European audience.

I'm really surprised I didn't see more comments on this movie. I remember watching this movie when I was, I think 13 or 14. I never quite understood the complexities of emotion that were put into this movie. But I had always remembered it from my younger years. I decided to pick up the DVD when it came out again. Now that I'm older, and actually work with cut scenes as an animator for a living. I now see everything that I missed.

I am by all means not an emotional person or cry a lot etc, but I have at least watched this film more then 15 times in the last year. No other movie has ever brought me to tears every time I watch it. Not tears of sadness or being upset , but tears of happiness. There are so many moments in this picture that can overwhelm you with that gut feeling of real love. You really let these characters take your heart and go with it. That is what a true movie is a about , is the ability to let you heart go and pull in that emotion from them and try to imagine feeling what they feel. I don't think any other movie has captured my heart that way. I might seem all soft and sound like a push over but I'm about as manly as you can get.

If you have the time to see this movie or buy it. You truly will receive a much broader look at life , love , fear , relationships and most of all believing in yourself and who you are.

I didn't want reveal any of the movie but it really has touched me.

Michael Loeck Character animator http://www.immortal3d.com