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'Fly Away Home': Winged Victory

Since the beginning of the new family values era in Hollywood, wholesome, upbeat stories for young people about achieving the impossible are no longer uncommon. But a kids' film as big-hearted and exhilarating as Carroll Ballard's "Fly Away Home" would qualify as a genuine rarity during any period -- not only for its expansive, optimistic spirit, but because its affirmations are accomplished without surrendering to sentimentality or resorting to the usual smiley face formulas. It's a movie about dreamers that, for once, doesn't make you feel like a sap for buying into their dream.

The story focuses on Amy (Anna Paquin), a confused 13-year-old girl who becomes Mother Goose to a rambunctious flock of wild Canadian goslings. (It was adapted by screenwriters Robert Rodat and Vince McKewin from Bill Lishman's autobiography, which records a situation that was in some respects similar.) However, it's also just the sort of made-for-TV-movie fodder that in the hands of a lesser filmmaker could easily degenerate into a shameless spectacle of greeting-card cuteness.

Luckily, Ballard signals his lack of interest in such things right up front by starting the action in New Zealand with a car wreck that causes the death of Amy's mother, forcing the emotionally bruised teenager to reluctantly begin a life with her estranged father, Thomas (Jeff Daniels), on his farm in Ontario. It's a forceful, poetic opening, and with it Ballard strikes a note of melancholy that reverberates through the rest of the movie.

Though Amy was born in Canada, she remembers almost nothing about it. She knows even less about her sculptor father, except that her mother snatched her away from him and moved to Auckland to pursue her dream of becoming an artist. And what Amy does know, she doesn't like.

With his bushy beard and flowing blond locks, Thomas is definitely an eccentric. For her part, though, Amy prefers to think of Thomas as crazy, particularly on that first morning after her arrival when she is awakened by the clank of his glider as he crashes to the ground in the field below her window.

And he may well be nuts. After all, what person in his right mind would express his enthusiasm for the space program by building an exact replica of the lunar landing module in his barn? But one of the elements that distinguishes "Fly Away Home" from other films of its kind is the awareness Ballard conveys of how complicated and difficult impossible dreamers can be.

On one level, "Fly Away Home" examines a young girl's attempts to emerge from the shadow of her mother's death. For her first few days in her new home, Amy wanders around the farm in a moody funk, disdainfully turning up her nose at everything. After adopting her gang of geese, though, her life takes on new purpose. Because Amy's geese lost their parents, they didn't learn the migration routes to the south. And so, when the chilly winter comes, they will be stuck up north unless someone else takes them south.

At first, Thomas offers to tackle the responsibility of escorting Amy's flock alone. But when the geese refuse to follow anyone except Amy, she's pressed into aerial service as well. The film's most touching moments come, in fact, during the scenes in which father and daughter make preparations for their journey and begin to repair the rift in their relationship.

Of course, the geese themselves are the true stars. They are also the purest embodiment of the film's loosey-goosey spirit. As he proved in "The Black Stallion" and "Never Cry Wolf," Ballard (working with cinematographer Caleb Deschanel) is a genius at photographing animals. His work is no less impressive here.

Then again, Ballard's obvious mastery is evident everywhere -- in his transcendent imagery, his flawless sense of timing and rhythm, and his intuitive feel for the mechanics of big-screen storytelling. The director's sound aesthetic judgment and taste are amply displayed, as well, especially later on when Amy is about to end her mission and there is a great temptation to indulge the audience's desire for triumphal bombast. However, instead of providing a big heroic flourish, Ballard shifts away from the noise and excitement of the crowd to join Amy in the sky as she peacefully glides toward her destination, taking in the beauty of the scene below. By refusing to be a cheerleader, Ballard may lose some of the excitement of the moment. But he gains a genuine sense of awe and wonder.

Fly Away Home is rated PG.