FLY AWAY HOME

US, 1996, 97 minutes, Colour.
Anna Paquin, Jeff Daniels, Dana Delaney, Terry Kinney.
Directed by Carol Ballard.

A family film about family but also about geese. Jeff Daniels plays an artist who has not seen his daughter Amy (Anna Paquin) who lives in New Zealand for years. Her mother dies in an accident and Amy goes to live with him in Canada. When a building development disturbs the breeding ground for some geese, Amy tends them and they follow her. How to get them to migrate? Dad build a plane? Amy fly it to South Carolina? The geese to follow? Yes. And that is what we see in the film. Fathers and daughters will probably enjoy the strong bonding theme in the film. Nature lovers will be fascinated with the handling of the geese - and the images of geese in flight are beautiful. Direction is by Carroll Ballard who made the family and nature films The Black Stallion and Never Cry Wolf. Quality family film.

1.An entertaining animal film? family film? The attraction for children?

2.The New Zealand opening? The Canadian setting? The small town, the countryside? The home? The aerial photography? The birds? The flying machine? The American cities and the journey south? The musical score?

3.The title, the focus on the geese? Amy and her mission? The achievement of the mission?

4.The prologue in New Zealand? Amy, her mother, the collision? Her mother dying? Amy in Canada? Hospital, her father? Having to move to Canada?

5.Anna Paquin as Amy? Her screen presence, her age, experience, being transplanted from home? In Canada, in the country house, her father's sculptures? His inventions, the flying machine? Her reaction to her father, the estrangement, the passing of the years? Her meeting Susan and her antagonistic reaction? Her Uncle David? The finding of the geese, the eggs, the goslings, the bulldozers and the flattening of the area? The incubator, the hatching of the eggs? The response of the birds to Amy? The intervention of the police, the clipping of the wings? Amy and her research about the geese? The need for their migration? The need for having a mother to imitate? Amy and her care for them on the ground - the need for them to fly? The flying machine, the geese trying to follow? The need for the geese to follow Amy, the plane, the trials? Her study for the site for the migration? The police, the impounding of the birds? The plan to get the policeman away? The release? The flight, Amy following her father? The Great Lakes, the fuel, the military base? The reaction of the soldiers? The media following Amy? The visualising of the birds in flight, the television? The site in Florida, her father having to ditch the plane? Amy leading the birds triumphant to the landing site? Her achievement? The effect for this 13-year-old girl?

6.Thomas, his estrangement from him wife? The accident, his having to tell Amy about her move to Canada? His background, his big house, the sculptures, the inventions, the flying machine? His relationship with Susan, her being in the home, Amy and her negative reaction? His reaction to the geese, the eggs? The clipping of the wings and his angry reaction? The study of the migration, his decision about the flying machine, the birds not willing to follow him? The machine for Amy? The tests? The raid, the escape of the birds? He and Amy flying together? The fuel and the military base? The media opportunity? His ditching the plane, his accident? Hitchhiking? His daughter's achievement and his sharing in it?

7.Susan, her relationship with Thomas, presence in the house, love for Thomas, her wanting Amy to like her? The antagonism? Her gradually winning Amy over, concern about the birds? The flight?

8.Uncle David, eccentricities, Amy's reaction?

9.The people in the town, Amy getting used to them? The police, the regulations about clipping the wings? The antagonism of the police, taking the birds? Their being sent on a `wild goose chase'?

10.The visualising of the birds, the geese at the site, the developer and the bulldozing of the site? The eggs, the hatching, the young birds and their behaviour? Their following and mimicking Amy? Learning to fly? The visualising of the flight to the south, the birds in formation? Going through the cities, past the skyscrapers and the office windows? The television? The final achievement arriving at the lake?

11.The environmental perspective of the film? Humans and nature? Development and destruction of bird sites? Humans contributing to the migration and the preservation of the species?

12.Children identifying with Amy and her interest, her cause, her mission, her achievement?