The Boy Who Could Fly

THE BOY WHO COULD FLY (PG)
D: Nick Castle
20th Century Fox/Lorimar (Gary Adelson)
USA 🇺🇸 1986
114 mins
 
Drama/Fantasy
 
W: Nick Castle
DP: Steve Poster & Adam Holender
Ed: Patrick Kennedy
Mus: Bruce Broughton
PD: James D. Bissell
 
Lucy Deakins (Milly Michaelson), Jay Underwood (Eric Gibb), Bonnie Bedelia (Charlene Michaelson), Fred Savage (Louis Michaelson), Colleen Dewhurst (Mrs. Carolyn Sherman), Fred Gwynne (Uncle Hugo Gibb)
 
A family move into a new home and make friends with an autistic boy who lives next door, who believes that he can fly.
The movie has a subplot of dealing with loss and coping in a broken home before the title of the film becomes literal and the film takes on a fantasy element which feels totally unconvincing.
There's also some good comic moments with Fred Savage as the G.I. Joe obsessed son of the family, though the product placement couldn't possibly be any more in your face (including a scene which lingers on each action figure as Savage names them).
Flawed, it is, but the only performances by the two leads makes for a cute chemistry and it generally holds a nostalgic quality for those who watched it during the 1980's, but not worth going out of your way to watch nowadays.
6/10

Jay Underwood & Lucy Deakins in The Boy Who Could Fly
Jay Underwood & Lucy Deakins in The Boy Who Could Fly