67
Metascore
13 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90Washington PostRichard HarringtonWashington PostRichard HarringtonYou 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.
- 80The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinA gentle and affecting film that ought to charm older children while also holding their parents' interest,
- 80Chicago ReaderPat GrahamChicago ReaderPat GrahamIt's easy to pick this emotional bunny rabbit apart—for the sentimental bathos, the literalism, the radiating wholesomeness (everything David Lynch parodied in Blue Velvet, down to the impeccable small-town streets and flowers framed against a screaming blue sky . . . only Castle gives it to you straight, without irony)—though what's remarkable here, and altogether rare, is the artifice and polish of Castle's studio-rooted style.
- It's funny and sad and a little surreal, the kind of movie that makes you willingly suspend your disbelief. You don't have to be a kid to enjoy it, but you'll feel like one again when it's over.
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertMovies like this can be insufferable if they lay it on too thick. The Boy Who Can Fly finds just about the right balance between its sunny message and the heartbreak that's always threatening to prevail.
- 75TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineThis is a strikingly original story about human feelings.
- 60Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasLos Angeles TimesKevin ThomasThe 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.
- 40Time OutTime OutDirector Castle gets lost in fantasy, spoiling a promising portrait with some heavy-handed emotional manipulation and an escapist conclusion.