Portrait-of-a-Statue Flying Home (also known as Racing Hearts) is a charming love story that wins your heart. It's shy. It doesn't scream at you with special effects or violence or profanity or prurient sex scenes. It takes place in an area of Belgium most Americans don't know a lot about and in the world of pigeon racing. Flanders and doves. It's safe to say you haven't been inundated with movies about Flanders and doves. Give Flying Home a chance.Colin (Jamie Dornan) is a hedge-fund hot-shot who sets out to buy a bird worth 300,000 euros on behalf of an Arab dove fancier. He finds himself in a small village in Flanders among a group of dove racing aficionados and is drawn into their world with the help of a local college student and a search for the grave of his British great-grandfather. His great-grandfather, like half a million young British soldiers, died in Flanders in World War 1. Dornan does some subtle acting here. Colin pretends to be a high school teacher so as to hide his motive for being in Flanders. His character is acting and Dornan layers his performance. A lot of it is in his eyes. Colin's authenticity does surface, especially when he's with college student Isabel. The scene where Colin and Isabel are dancing is a beautiful study of a man who is struggling with conflicting feelings. It's tricky and I have to say Dornan nails it. If you are looking for an over-actor, Dornan is not your man. He's excellent at slowly revealing the facets of Colin.Isabel is played by Flemish actress Charlotte De Bruyne. Isabel is open and direct. It's clear she likes Colin but she is not aggressive at all. She's lovely and De Bruyne is winsome in the role. It's easy to see why Colin would be drawn to Isabel, especially when you compare her to the NYC women he knows.The Flemish actors who play the village characters are all skilled and their Flemish accented English adds a lot to the atmosphere developed by the movie. The characters are not twee at all. They are individuals and for that you can thank the writer/director Dominique Deruddere. He knows how to write characters and he knows how to tell a story.Keep in mind the plot sometimes hinges on unseen action. Because of this and because the world and language (there are a few subtitled passages) of Flying Home are not so familiar to us, you have to give Flying Home your full attention. Do it. You'll be rewarded with a little gem of a movie.

fred freeze Anyone with knowledge of the role Pigeoneers played in WWI and the history that pigeons played in Europe from transporting news to stock market quotes before the telegraph will enjoy this movie. Movie buffs who recall the 1940 movie "A Dispatch from Reuters" know what I mean. This of course will be missed by a lot of the younger generations.The scenes of Flanders Belgium are peaceful and charming. The acting is good. Jamie Dornan looked troubled throughout the movie, not happy being the cold-hearted businessman his father created, he becomes remorseful and takes a career destructive path to redemption. Charlotte De Bruyne has that European brightness and simple hometown charm that is perfect as a sweet girl from Flanders living with her grandfather.Make sure you use the subtitles on the DVD as some of the audio is Belgian.

Neely OHara I'm a Jamie Dornan fan - his work in BBC2's "The Fall" is superlative. I rarely would give such praise to a former underwear model (once called "the golden torso" in the New York Times when he modeled for Calvin Klein) and I don't care how lovely he is or that he is about to debut as "the epitome of male beauty" Christian Grey in "Fifty Shades of Grey". I take his performances individually (there are precious few) and this one in a relatively saccharine film about pigeon racing in Belgium of all things is uncomfortable and awkward at best.I'm not sure when it was filmed but I can hardly believe that the Jamie Dornan here is the same actor playing serial killer Paul Spector in "The Fall" (with the brilliant Gillian Anderson). *I discovered it was filmed in between Season One and Two of The Fall and by Jamie and the director's own admission came about through a lot of beer drinking, which may have been how Jamie got the job in the first place. I'm thinking such career decisions in the future should not be entrusted to a brewski.He seems so out of his element he makes me nervous watching him; as if he wants to duck down behind large pieces of furniture and pretend he is anywhere but making this pigeon film in Belgium.Maybe he needed a vacation and Belgium sounded nice? Maybe he had a break between any work whatsoever and this film and a paycheck was a good idea? Maybe when you're a former underwear model who is yet to be cast as Christian Grey, you've got to take everything that is offered to you?In "Flying Home" (or "Racing Hearts", it has two different titles), Jamie phones in a lackluster performance with line-readings that are devoid of energy, commitment, direction and interest. It's like he cannot wait to get to the end of the scene and have a beer with the crew.The script is weak, but the Belgian actors do a decent job with their lines. Jamie however is stuck in some netherworld with his clumsy-sounding, vocal fry American accent, looking pained in a suit in the New York scenes and then looking completely confused once his character is in Belgium. His soulful blue eyes dart furtively for the most part like he's looking for an escape route. He underplays a drunk scene so badly that it's difficult to tell if he is drunk or just really sleepy. Scenes where he should be amused or amusing fall terribly flat and seem embarrassingly stilted.He has one scene where he handles a pigeon which seems to be his only honest moment, you can sense a sweetness in him then, it is tender and the only time you get a glimpse of his potential as an actor that he shows in spades in "The Fall".The rest of the time he is blah and bland and has less than zero chemistry with the actress playing his love interest Isabelle. I don't buy their love story for a millisecond. The disparity in their looks is a bit jarring since Jamie is preternaturally pretty and the Flemish girl has somewhat strong features. But there is nothing going on there, not a spark, not a connection, just lines tumbled out in rote boredom.In Dornan's defense it's not a very good film, and pigeon racing isn't exactly fascinating. The addition of the World War I sub-plot and the famous war hero carrier pigeon seems like an after-thought.Furthermore at one point Jamie's character Colin says to Isabelle's grandfather that he had an ancestor who SUPPOS-ABLY died in Flanders in World War I. I cannot believe that no one caught this - not Jamie (who speaks the King's English with an Irish brogue), not the director, editor - no one? This is a high powered young business executive from New York City who thinks the word is suppos-ably and not SUPPOSEDLY? That pretty much sums up the entire experience. Sloppy, dull and even Jamie's beauty could not carry it. Handsome is as handsome does could not be more true.

renata1901 Before watching a movie I always look out for the reviews and watch the trailer and see the comments. The trailer seemed like an okay movie and the reviews aren't really that good but I decided to give it a try because I felt like it could turn out as a good movie. Jamie Dornan was really good at his acting and I really enjoyed Charlotte De Bruyne's acting also. This movie had me really into it since the beginning and I just found it fascinating cause it also got me sentimental at some point and there a few movies that really give you that feeling. I give it a 10 and people should give it a try and see it, I totally recommend it.