_The_Theory_of_Flight_ (R) ** 1/2 (out of ****)
As part of a community service sentence, Richard (Kenneth Branagh) becomes the caretaker of Jane (Helena Bonham Carter), a headstrong young woman stricken with ALS, the degenerative neurological disease better known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. It sounds like a garden variety disease-of-the-week TV movie, but director Paul Greengrass and writer Richard Hawkins have managed to come up with something fresh and offbeat, focusing not on Jane's illness, but her desire to lose her virginity before she dies. This is not, however, to suggest that the film is a downer; in fact, the tone of the film is quite light and never sappy, thanks to the eccentric characters and often comical situations they get themselves into.
But it's one thing to be offbeat and unconventional and quite another to be unbelievable, and what keeps the film from truly taking flight is that too much of Richard's behavior falls under the latter category--namely, his scheme to rob a bank to buy a gigolo's services for Jane. In fact, his main character quirk--to achieve flight with a homemade plane pieced together from unwanted articles from his past--is also a bit hard to swallow. Nonetheless, the film does achieve some emotional resonance, due to solid performances by the leads (Bonham Carter is especially good, barely recognizable and completely convincing) and their effortless chemistry.
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