‘The Boy Who Could Fly’ (PG)

"The Boy Who Could Fly" is a movie that gives PG another meaning: Parental Gratitude. You don't have to be young or old to enjoy it this lovely, engaging film, just open-minded, or at least bighearted. At once funny, sad, moving, inspirational and revealing, "The Boy Who Could Fly" suspends the law of emotional gravity, soaring at just the right moments.

After the sudden death of her father, 14-year-old Milly Michaelson has to move into a musty old house in a new, apparently downscale, neighborhood, along with her 8-year-old brother and her stillshellshocked mother.

Almost immediately, Milly (Lucy Deakins) encounters her next-door neighbor, Eric (Jay Underwood). Mute and passive, Eric has been autistic since age 5, when his vacationing parents were killed in a plane crash. Intuiting their impending death, Eric had transformed himself into a plane in an attempt to rescue them. Ten years later, still locked in a psychological holding pattern, he spends most of his time perched on his windowsill or the roof of his house -- arms outstretched, ready for flight, as if the wind will take him up and redeem his life.

The heart of "The Boy Who Could Fly" is the friendship that develops between Eric and Milly, a relationship free of sexual overtones, though with innocent romantic edges.

Eric somehow senses Milly's good heart, and with the support of one of his teachers (Colleen Dewhurst) she assumes added duties as amateur therapist -- and eventually gets to be a copilot in Eric's fancy of flight.

Milly's brother Louis is a Dennis the Menace for the '80s, an aggressive, camouflage-clad loner ensnared in GI Joe mythology and happy only in the company of his dog Max. And Mom (Bonnie Bedelia), still coping with the loss of her mate, has to struggle back into the insurance business after 13 years as a housewife and mother.

But these are busywork sidebars to the simple communion that builds between Eric and Milly.

Director Nick Castle, who also wrote the script, never rushes after drama, opting instead for little victories that seem plausible: a reactive movement here, a smile there, hands held to celebrate a breakthrough. There are no great expectations, only small steps -- and short flights -- taken by two youngsters bonded by the loss of parents.

While "The Boy Who Could Fly" is a fantasy, it is not Superboy/Peter Pan escapism. When they finally appear, the special effects don't get overplayed, and that makes them special instead of just effects. In fact, one of the film's pluses is that it shows a couple of youngsters learning about themselves without the benefit of any alien life force.

Though "The Boy Who Could Fly" has its share of unabashed sentimentality, there are also some complex subtexts: emotional adjustments after the death of a parent; making new friends in a new neighborhood; children assuming parental responsibilities.

Castle was fortunate to have two gifted young actors making their film debuts. Deakins, who really is 14, is engaging and believable as Milly -- sensitive, shy, confused and reluctantly growing into her beauty. Underwood, 16, is wonderfully controlled as the autistic Eric. At first his face is as slack as his emotions, yet despite being wordless, he still conveys a haunted inner self. His eventual emergence, and his final retreat, are enough to make you cry.