Customer Reviews

Theory of Flight [VHS]

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

After such memorable roles in "The Wings of the Dove" and "Margaret's Museum," Helena Bonham Carter delivers another magnificent performance, and one that is very close to her heart. Ms. Bonham Carter's father has motor neurone disease, so she is able to plumb the depths of her personal experience. True, she had to modify it a little to be accessible to audiences. At the same time, she and Kenneth Branagh were having a personal relationship, adding another level of complexity. Still, instead of being a totally depressing film, it is a sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, but always up-lifting experience. Why did it not find an audience? New Line Cinema did not seem to advertise it. Or perhaps, was it too realistic? In today's Hollywood, "realism" is defined as explicit sex scenes and gory violence. But I suppose films about people with disabilities and the complexities of the human heart are considered "too" realistic. Cheers to Helena Bonham Carter and Kenneth Branagh for tackling a controversial subject with such bravado and award winning quality.

Although this is a British film (and was partly produced by the B.B.C.)it has not been released on videotape or DVD in the United Kingdom.

Having seen the film on B.B.C. television I bought a video recording from the U.S.A. I received the tape ... very speedily but I was surprised to find that an important final scene has been omitted from the American version of the film. In this scene Richard Hopkins (K. Branagh) marries his girlfriend played by Holly Aird whilst Jane Hatchard (H. Bonham Carter) looks on from the pews. At this time it is apparant that Janes' condition has deteriorated as she has lost her voice and needs to use the speaking machine continually.

This scene is very poignant and makes a most appropriate end to the film. Without it the film seems to terminate very abruptly and without the pathos provided by the missing scene. I know little of film production and can only assume that this (misguided) cut was made simply to reduce the running time to a length someone (?) deemed suitable.

A four star film has thus been reduced to three stars.

I went to see this movie with my husband who had had ALS (Lou Gehrig desease, the same desease as the heroine's) and passed away last month. We both were very touched and couldn't stop crying. You will like it, even if you are not familiar with this serious desease. It's a wonderful story that moves everyone to tears.

The movie makes people aware of ALS and those suffering from it. I loved how the male character changed gradually. He percieved Helena's character and her situation differently; opening a heart he didn't realize he had... Helena's protrayal was realistic; she held her body accurately without being insensitive to those suffering from ALS. It touched a soft part within myself since I am not ambulatory anymore. More people need to open up their hearts and volunteer! As the story relays, it can be a sad, lonely life and it doesn't have to be.

Richard (Kenneth Branagh), a frustrated painter and would-be airplane builder, has a mid-life crisis and ends up afoul of the law. He's sentenced to community service and assigned to be a companion to Jane (Helen Bonham Carter), who is suffering with the end stages of ALS. She's sarcastic and angry and he's depressed, but eventually their frienship grows; then she asks him for a favor that only he can do.

This remarkably uplifting true story is funny and tragic and just plain wonderful. Carter is well-cast as the caustic young woman who wants to experience physical love just once before she dies. Branagh is tender and gentle as the man who dreams of flying. The ending is never in doubt, but the journey is engaging and will have you reaching for your tissues. Beautifully filmed in London and Wales.

I can't believe this movie isn't even on DVD yet. It is a classic. With two of Britain's greatest actors. Wonderfully human, funny and intelligent.

This film is about a remarkable relationship between a woman crippled with Lou Gehrig's Disease who is trying to lose her virginity, and a befuddled painter fighting a midlife crisis by trying to fly. It is at least as good as My Left Foot. I can't understand why Helena Bonham Carter did not get an Oscar, nor why the screenplay was never recognized. There is not a false line in it. I have watched it 4 times and never tire of it. I am wondering about the dedication, as it appears that the screenplay may have been about a real person with ALS. It is now very difficult to rent this film, so I advise anyone who can, to buy it.

Kenneth Branagh is the master! This film exhibited all of what the man is capable of giving to his performance...comedy, heartbreak, struggle, and compassion. My only wish is that Helena Bonham-Carter and he will continue to make films together in the future, because this truly is the perfect onscreen duo!

This movie was one of the most beautiful movies I have seen in a while, and I watch alot of movies. It is not a deptiction of real life but what real life can be. I feel sory for the person who did not enjoy it because it did not show acurately the life of a person with ALS. This is a movie that can give someone with ALS wings. I got this idea by reading the coments from the widow of a someone who watched the movie with her late husband who had ALS and died from it. I believe her opinion is the only one that counts. But remember, this is a movie not a documentary. If you are going to pick on it for lack of acuracy than have at for a mountain of other movies who share its lack of acuracy, why stop with this one. There are some movies that show the beauty and the power of friendship, it transends the necsesity for real life acuracy.

It is quite incredible that a beautiful film of this depth and quality has never been remastered on DVD or BluRay. Even the Italian DVD version is unavailable. Hopefully a day will come when the commercial grime is placed in the trash file where it belongs and films of great beauty and human value, such as "The Theory of Flight", are made available for contemporary play formats that facilitate the timelessness of the work.
ASLIII