If I Had Wings

If I had Wings is a family film about a blind kid who wants to be a runner but needs a running partner. He teams up with a troubled youth in a bid to win a race.

To get the negatives out the way first this is a film we have seen a million times before, the troubled kid with a good heart, the bad guy Jock, the standard family film plot template.

For all it's predictability this still manages to be a very enjoyable and well above average film of its genre. This is mainly due to an excellent cast who all do a good job with the script they have. In particular Jaren Brandt Bartlett who is superb as the charismatic bad boy turned good.

The film is fast paced and flows well and there are some well executed laughs to be had along with the drama had as well. This is a film that can be enjoyed by all the family, a pretty rare occurrence these days. Highly recommended.

This film is simply rubbish! It's a kind of "feel good" movie that envisions a fantasy world, one that has nothing to do with the real world. It's a trite little tale, completely predictable and unimaginative, based on a script that appears to be written by a child. The atmosphere is all "unicorns and cotton candy", where everyone is just so sweet, with the exception of the high school bully, who plays the part as expected. It's a movie for the Hallmark channel, or maybe Canadian TV, where everything has to be made sugar coated. It seems to be a family production and really is completely divorced from real life.

This is a wonderful story that makes us feel complete. Besides all problems and difficulties, human beings are put into test. Most of them are able to show their capability to overcome whichever comes as a barrier. This is basically what this movie is about.

As a teacher, I not only recommend it as I use this story to work with my students aiming to show them they can always go beyond they think they can. Moreover, they can see with this example that complaining over silly things won't help them achieve their goals or even make them better people.

Once again, I strongly recommend this movie if you're looking forward to being a better human being. =)

This was a really heartwarming film that struck a lot of the right chords: overcoming a disability; having tolerance and respect for persons who are different in terms of culture, race, or ability; and meeting the challenges of single parenthood. During the screening I attended in Vancouver in April, young people in the audience were well engaged and, in the climactic race scene, cheering on the hero. It's a well-paced film with high production values.

One of the challenges of a classic overcoming-the-odds film is making the characters and their situation believable. This film achieved a good level of credibility by giving all characters, both the good and the bad, a mix of traits. The hero has his faults, just as the less likable characters have their moments of grace and remorse.

The film is well acted throughout. It was a testament to Richard Harmon's acting that, in a Q&A session following the screening I attended, one of the audience asked whether the actor is blind or sighted.

I enjoyed the film and the various story lines presented kept me interested and kept the plot moving. A good watch.

As a former XC runner myself, the director could have done much more research into the sport. Many facts/reality are not there, had they been I would have notched this up a bit higher. Also made the 'villain' in the movie difficult to believe because the sport doesn't typically attract those type of jocks.

The back-and-forth between the runners assigned to each other was what I found most intriguing.

Good cinematography that helped tell a well-written story.