Film Review: Fly Away

Actress Beth Broderick and cast traverse the fine line between love and despair in Janet Grillo's Fly Away

For many films featuring mentally challenged characters, the tendency is to treat the subject as sentimental as possible and tug on the heart strings good and hard. The end goals presumably, is either hope of an Oscar win or make the viewer empty that box of scented tissues in one sitting. Thankfully, producer/filmmaker Janet Grillo does not treat her audience like children or emotional wimps; she hits hard between the eyes with a story that clearly illustrates the persistant struggles faced by families dealing with autism in her directorial debut, Fly Away.

Leveraging honest, poignant performances against a clear-eyed, sometimes tough, script, Grillo demands nothing less than the truth from her film and it delivers. Beth Broderick handles the lead as Jeanne, a single-mother struggling to raise her teenage daughter Mandy (Ashley Rickards) and keep pace with her ambitious business partner’s demands. Loving but worn down by life, Jeanne finds solace in her love for Mandy, despite her daughter’s increasingly erratic and violent outbursts in school and at home. A young woman with the mind of a child, one cannot help but be entranced by Mandy’s innocence. However, her inability to cope effectively with the world around her begins challenging Jeanne’s carefully maintained balance of work and motherhood.

When her ex-husband suggests enrolling Mandy in a special needs school, Jeanne outright refuses to entertain the thought. In her eyes, to send Mandy away like some animal would not only diminish her daughter’s humanity but mark herself as a failed mother. Her devotion is near absolute but events quickly unfold both positive and dark, which threaten to finally unravel Jeanne and Mandy’s world. One comes in the form of Tom (Greg Germann), a pleasant, well-meaning bachelor who moves into Jeanne’s neighborhood and strikes an instant rapport with the love-challenged mom. Appreciating his sweet overtures, Jeanne can’t help but fear for his disapproval over Mandy but surprisingly, Tom is as entranced by her daughter just as much as Jeanne is. For the first time in years, the possibility of love exists but one can only wonder if Jeanne can allow herself to lower her protective shell and let someone new in.

Meanwhile, Mandy’s outbursts grow increasingly dangerous, threatening Jeanne’s livelihood and sanity. With so much pressure upon her shoulders, mother comes to a decisive crossroad with her daughter, one that will lead either to freedom and safety or destruction for them both. Again, while the subject matter screams Lifetime movie on paper, Fly Away is anchored by gutsy performances from game actors. Broderick turns in work that will instantly erase any memory of her role on Sabrina The Teenage Witch and levels the audience with a smart, beautiful woman pushed to the edge every day by the one person in her life she loves the most, but can truly destroy her. Alternating between sublime tenderness and fierce loyalty, she is a true mama bear that protects her cub to the death.

Providing the dramatic yang to Broderick’s yin though is Rickard’s believably layered portrait of a teenage autistic girl, who sees the world around her with sweetness but cannot control the swirling impulses within her body. Rickards exhudes danger in her performance as one cannot predict what Mandy will do next, and that scares the hell out of everyone around her. On a side note, Greg Germann finally has an opportunity to break out of the quirky, best friend roles he’s always been saddled with and shines with leading man quality as a sensitive soul, looking to woo a woman who no longer knows what that emotion feels like. After a successful festival circuit run including South by Southwest, Fly Away is now available for home viewing. For those who appreciate honest drama and expert acting, Grillo and company step up to the plate and lay it all out there.

Available now on home video, to check this film out, you can head over to www.flyawayfilm.com or www.amazon.com