Fly Away Home Details

No one captures the inspirational beauty of nature better than director Carroll Ballard, who also made Never Cry Wolf and the excellent Black Stallion. Based on a true story, this exhilarating picture gets off to a painful start with a fatal road accident. But the mood changes from despair to determination as Anna Paquin channels her grief into the rearing of some orphan goslings, learning to fly a microlight plane to guide her feathered family to its winter breeding ground. With selfless support from Jeff Daniels as Paquin's inventor father and from the geese themselves (stealing every scene, whether waddling comically or flying majestically), this impeccably photographed film is an unbounded delight.

Charming, understated film about loss and love, which reaches a splendid climax as the young girl teaches geese to migrate to their winter haunts.