SnoopyStyle Milly Michaelson (Lucy Deakins), her little brother Louis (Fred Savage) and mother Charlene (Bonnie Bedelia) move into their new home. She gets a new friend in pushy Geneva Goodman (Mindy Cohn) while Louis gets bullied by Geneva's brother and his friends. Charlene has a difficult time to start anew after losing her husband. Eric Gibb (Jay Underwood) is a mysterious mute boy living in the room facing Milly. His drunken uncle Hugo (Fred Gwynne) is his guardian. People think Eric is autistic. He started to believe that he could fly at 5 when his parents died in a plane crash. Milly wonders if he could truly fly. Their teacher Mrs. Sherman (Colleen Dewhurst) works to keep him from being institutionalized with Milly's help.It's a wonderful sensitive film that is good for the whole family. Lucy Deakins is endearing and sweet. There is a gentle magic about the movie. It's very romantic in the simple childlike way and also surprisingly funny. The family drama is poignant. It's a live action fairy tale.

cousinoleg I remember being intrigued by this movie when finding it on IMDb. For me the relative innocence of 80s movies and childhood nostalgia made it a much better, if absolutely unrealistic movie. It could be seen as some sort of modern fairy tale, not be considered seriously, but with some sort of hidden meaning/moral.I can relate to this movie because of some similar events, fears and dreams from my own life; of course like most movies, this one is exaggerated a bit, and mixes fantasy(people's dreams) with real life.This is why some 80s movies are so fun to watch, because they are absolutely unrealistic escapism and fantasy to the max, cheesy and overly optimistic as some may consider, but so is belief in God and Lord Jesus Christ, which i do share by God's grace. This may be due to a partial return to conservative and Christian values that the world had in the 80s, as a backlash against confused and crisis-ridden 70s.The film is about a family struggling with their lives after the tragic death of their father, who chose suicide instead of fighting with cancer. But no matter how hard one's life is, there is surely someone whose life is worse, so their neighbor is an alcoholic man with an autistic nephew, whose parents have died in a plane crash.While this movie is not Christian, in showing no love to or mention of God, it is similar to Jesus' second greatest commandment "Love your neighbor as yourself". The girl Milly, while doing her best to be the family cook, actually finds time and care to help the autistic boy next door/window Eric. As many 80s movies' characters, Milly doesn't have much flaws, except for underage alcohol drinking; though i expected her to breakdown into "i'm getting no respect/real life" fit, guess i've seen too many 90s-00s "overdriven realistic" movies, where teenagers are too often rebellious and egoistical.As the Milly's mother and brother get through their work and bully problems, Milly and Eric get romantically close in an innocent way and get to fly holdings hands to the amazement of the whole city. Then Eric flies away. THE END.CONCLUSION: The whole flying, may be a metaphor for the first love, with Milly and Eric, being high on the wings of love. It may also be an aspiration to what is true, noble, right.. as in New Testament, Philippians 4:8. The fact that Eric then flied away, may mean that Milly and Eric separated and never seen each other again, or that Eric may have fallen off the roof and did die, which sounds sad, but possible. Thus many people could relate to it, adding their own life stories about their first love, life tragedies or mental problems.

samborrett_27 I think the boy who could fly is one of the best and saddest movies I have ever seen. The acting in the movie was amazing, they did a great job. I haven't seen the movie in a long time but it is one of those movies that sticks in your head and one that you will never forget. Every time I think about the movie I just want to watch it over and over again. My whole family does. I would also like to ask if anyone knows where I can obtain a copy of the movie from? I have been searching for the movie for years now and have been unable to find a copy. I feel that this movie is similar to A Walk To Remember with Mandy Moore, that movie was great also.

tabasco21 I started watching this on Optus Greats yesterday and i liked it so i ended up watching all of it. I think its one of the best 80's family movies, and i'm not a big fan of 80's family movies. Acting was great, especially by the young kid playing eric. He even got to kiss that young chick Milly. She's not bad looking except for the hair. Fred Savage was great, i liked his first day at school. I can't believe this but i almost cried at the end of this flick, but it would have been worth it as it is a very heartwarming story.