Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

paulclaassen Well now, this was just a cute little film. Anna Paquin was great, and the ducklings too! It was fairly predictable, but some impressive camera shots, great scenery, and an overall feel-good mood and theme made this well worth the watch.

brown-faith922 "Fly Away Home" has been a favorite in my family for years. The story is classic, with every element of a film that is sure to last. The movie gives a vivid and often raw presentation of the relationships within a family, particularly between estranged members, and raises interesting questions about what family itself is and what it means. The view is utterly breathtaking as we're taken on a flight through the Canadian skies, following both the physical and emotional journey of Amy and her father. The father-daughter relationship, in any context, is often a touchy subject, and many films have a tendency to overdramatize certain elements of such a relationship. While the drama is certainly here with this one, we see less of the verbal, noisy drama than we do the quiet, awkward, tense, and somewhat snippy sentiments which exist between the two. Anna Paquin is flawless. Jeff Daniels will make you laugh, cry, and applaud. The chemistry between these two actors is beautiful, making this film one of the first and only that I have ever seen that has not made me despise the "rebellious daughter" figure. If this movie has a flaw, it is only that it is a bit slow by times. Still, for those who, like me, don't mind those sweepingly beautiful images of Canadian landscape, even if nothing much is happening... you'll enjoy the film.

TedMichaelMor Sctmpir's review nails this film, which celebrates a young female character with immense richness, complexity even, and grace. I think that the treatment of women in this work is among the most finely nuanced and intelligent I have ever seen in any film.Carroll Ballard, who directed the gracious and almost unbearably beautiful "Wind" as well as "The Black Stallion", "Duma", and "Never Cry Wolf"--all films that have an almost sentimental tone but a tone really closer to romantic in the classic Victorian sense of awe and wonder at life itself—controls every aspect of the narrative. This film might seem close to but is never saccharine. It is about wonder in the sense of awe.Anna Paquin exhibits brilliance as an adolescent actor that overwhelms me, in part, because there is never anything trite or coquettish that often mares the role many fine young actresses play. The role here required immense transparency, poise, and nuance.Dana Delaney has the same poise, apparent simplicity, attention to nuance and understatement as Ms. Paquin. No actor is better than Jeff Daniels is when he expresses understatement and subtly—remember him, for example, in "Pleasantville" and "Purple Rose of Cairo". Tim Kerry is a great boon to the film but everyone seems outstanding to me.Caleb Deschane is a master of magic hour cinematography, which works exceptionally well here. He did, for example, "The Right Stuff" with Philip Kaufman directing, "The Passion of the Christ" with Mel Gibson directing, "A Woman Under the Influence" with John Cassavetes, and "Being There" with Hal Ashby. He also directed the thoughtful film "Caruso". The attention to detail in this movie amazes me. There is not a bad frame anywhere in the film. That, of course, is in part the work of the editor Nicholas Smith.Music by Mark Isham is a tad dramatic but still lovely. Mr. Isham is one of the most productive of film composers.And the airplanes are terrific. The aerial images alone overwhelm me and recall the imagery from "Wind", one of my favourite action films. The flight though Baltimore alone is worth the price of admission and it one of utter majesty. One plane was the one used in the true story behind the work.As usual, I am not up to doing this fine work credit that it earns. I want to own a copy of it.I rate it ten because I judge films on their individual merits, not necessarily in comparison with other works.

robert-temple-1 Up we go! Caleb Deschanel's cinematography of flying geese is more than merely uplifting, like the film, it is extraordinary, and well deserved its Oscar nomination. This charming and delightful film is based upon the well-known fact that birds can 'imprint' on whoever or whatever is there when they hatch, and in this case it is the 14 year-old actress Anna Paquin. She was well worth imprinting on, as she is every bit as delightful as the film as a whole. Now that she is all grown up and glamorous, I wouldn't mind imprinting on her myself. - Give me an eggshell, quick! - The story is a wonderful fable about the girl who saves the goose eggs, hatches them, and becomes their Momma. They follow her around everywhere, but wild geese have to migrate, so she is faced with the dilemma: what to do at migration time? The girl's father is an eccentric, beautifully portrayed by Jeff Daniels. He is always tinkering with machines and likes to build what we now call 'micro-lites', tiny planes with engines that go 'put put' and carry a single person at low altitudes. So you guessed it, father and daughter get into their micro-lites and lead the geese south! Apparently, wild geese will follow a micro-lite if it is shaped like a goose. The story is a magnificent fable which is just believable, sensitively portrayed and with fabulous cinematography and special effects. It is what is called these days, amidst all the blood and gore and obsession with closeups of copulation, a 'family film', meaning no murders take place and people do something other than have sex all the time. (In a normal Hollywood movie it would be impossible to take the geese south because it would mean the director could not ask lots of actresses to take their clothes off.) Carroll Ballard directs this film really well. He is one of those rare directors who does not want to have all his characters mown down by machine guns or chopped to pieces by maniacs, and he does not want to invent unnecessary bath scenes where the girls show their tits so that he can get his jollies. He also likes animals a lot, and that is always a good sign that he might himself not be a monster like so many other directors are. Any normal person (and there still are some) would have to enjoy this film. It is what used to be called 'heart-warming'. In this era of cold hearts, we need that.