Too much fantasy can spoil the tale, and that's just what happens in this story.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 27, 2024

A piece of sentimental uplift for the Reagan era.

| Mar 29, 2023

The fable just about holds together. At any rate it doesn't have much need of the glue of its soupy score. But you know Hollywood. We need to have a little pain around if we are to believe in the magic.

| Mar 28, 2023

What is likable about this film is that it extols children being kind to each other.

| Mar 28, 2023

A commendable rarity: a sensitive children's film that neither patronises them nor insults their intelligence.

| Jul 16, 2020

The unevenness in tone here makes watching ''The Boy Who Could Fly'' a little like hitting airpockets in a puddlejumper.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 16, 2020

Though the film is both sappy and cliched, it's not as sappy or cliched as might be expected.

| Jul 16, 2020

"The Boy Who Could Fly" is as fragile as a kite, yet it's kept aloft by the commitment of writer-director Nick Castle and the talent and presence of lovely young Lucy Deakins, who has that crucial gift of catching us up in her imagination.

| Jul 16, 2020

Everyone has dreams about flying. Here, with The Boy Who Could Fly, one feels it just might be possible -- if not in the head, at least in the heart.

| Jul 16, 2020

Its vision is light and full of personality. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Jun 5, 2020

Grows increasingly trite and unengaging as it moves along.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 19, 2020

Filmmaker Castle has infused The Boy Who Could Fly with an exceedingly (and often excessively) deliberate pace that prevents the viewer from connecting to the material throughout...

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 3, 2018

A charming fantasy with a lot of heart.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 28, 2010

Under Nick Castle's careful direction, scenes never become maudlin, which is remarkable considering the potential of the subject matter. Deakins and Underwood handle their difficult roles with amazing grace.

| Mar 26, 2009

One of the best family films of the 80s. Lucy Deakins and Jay Underwood are delightful. A film you'll cherish forever.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 19, 2008

Director Castle gets lost in fantasy, spoiling a promising portrait with some heavy-handed emotional manipulation and an escapist conclusion.

| Feb 9, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 11, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 1, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 21, 2004

A gentle and affecting film that ought to charm older children while also holding their parents' interest...

| Aug 30, 2004