Cain Flies in to the Rescue
With his mother Mercedes (Talisa Soto) about to marry the respectable Frank (Miguel Sandoval) young Gabriel (Kristian de la Osa) isn't happy and ruins the wedding by crashing Frank's truck. Shortly after Clay Bennett (Dean Cain) is forced to land his plane on Frank's land and he finds himself and Mercedes making eyes at each other whilst Gabriel takes a shine to his plane. Having stayed around to help fix Frank's truck Clay ends up hurt when he tries to take off and damages the plane. But after recovering Clay tries to distance himself from Mercedes but finds himself bonding with Gabriel as he helps fix the plane.
When a movie is simply made as family entertainment I feel like I can't go off on one too much about it as it serves a different purpose to most of the movies I watch. As such as a piece of family entertainment "Flight of Fancy" or "Facing Fear" as it is also known is okay, it has humour, kids, nice looking people as well as a couple of messages. But it is a movie which is made at such a light weight, family friendly level that you have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy it.
Now if you are not in the right frame of mind then the issues are going to present themselves very quickly from an opening scene which features a strange, magical old bearded hobo taking a treasure chest from the trunk of a car to the less convincing scenes of Clay's plane flying in a storm. The list of issues is endless when you try to watch it when you are feeling cynical and so I will say again you have to be in the right mood to watch this as it isn't strong enough to turn a cynic into a believer if you like.
But when you are in the right mood it has this fun drama which has romance and humour but more importantly flawed characters learning lessons through friendship. As such we have Gabriel doing some growing up when he hangs around with Clay whilst Clay deals with his own issues which he has been running away from. Is any of this deep, nope but for those who want something simple and wholesome it is enough.
The reason why it works ends up down to the combination of Dean Cain and Kristian de la Osa who bring to life the bond which forms between their characters. Again there is nothing deep to this, just pleasant acting which ends up charming you whilst the attractive Talisa Soto also charms you with her beauty. Oh and there is also a plane which seems to be possessed by the spirit of Herbie the VW Beetle
What this all boils down to is that "Flight of Fancy" is in truth a difficult movie to watch as you really have to be in the right mood for its innocent message driven storyline. But if you are it is a pleasant movie which will warm your heart.
