Fly Away

Fly Away is the story of a single mom. Jeanne, struggling to raise Mandy, her sixteen year old severely autistic daughter, by herself.  I chronicals her relationship with her daughter, struggles with her ex-husband., lack of social life, and floundering carreer.

I'm going to be up front here.  This film is not going to win any awards.  Some of the acting  is wooden, particularly the love interest. And there is enough pie in the sky thinking to fill a very large house, particularly at the end.

But there are also some very wonderful things here too.  The director, Janet Grillo, apparent has a child with disabilites so she capture the relationship well.  Grillo captures those terrible lows that are balanced out by beautiful highs.  Those highs being and "I love you" or a moment of social awareness that would have meant nothing with a child not the autistic spectrum. 

The second thing that will take your breath away about this film is the performance of the young lady who plays Mandy. Her name is Ashley Rickards.  I stopped the film to look her up because I wanted to know if she was really autistic. 

In the end this is really a film about a coming of age both for mom and daughter and it raises all kinds of questions about humanity and our responsibility to care for the weaker members of our society.

Worth Watching.  Available on Netflix Instant Viewing.

On another note, several of you, my loyal followers, have told me that you missed my blog and you have wondered where I have been.  In answer to that I will give you the photo record of my entire viewing catalog for months on end.  As to my review...................I love them is a super dorky kind of way.  Like I wouldn't mind owning action figure or going to a convention kind of dorkdom.  Think less of my if you must.