“I can fix you.”
My True Fairy opens with a voice over spoken by Angie Goodwin (Emma Kennedy) in which she tells of her childhood dream of becoming a superhero with the ability to be fly and to be invisible. She would then save the world. As a teen, she still holds on to that dream.
When the action of the film begins, Angie is driving with two friends much too fast on a country road. After an awful accident, the two friends are in the hospital, but Angie is nowhere to be found. Angie is being raised by her grandparents. Her father Dean (Darri Ingolfsson) is off in L.A. following his dreams of being a composer. He comes back to his parents’ home, but when Angie continues to be missing, he returns to L.A. where he finds her in his apartment. She sets out to get her father’s life straightened out. Meanwhile the other teens involved have their own struggles. Is she involved in those lives as well?
The recurring theme in the story is the estrangement between parents and their children. It is not only the teens and their parents, but also involves Dean and his mother. The conflicts are over the usual familial issues: lack of trust, parents who spend all their energies on jobs, emotional abandonment. It should be noted that it seems that all the issues stem from the parents rather than the teens. At times the story becomes a bit soapy, especially as Dean tries to deal with his own life.
Director D. Mitry wrote the film after his daughter’s death in an auto accident. It served as a way for him to continue to feel connected to her. The film is a bit obvious. I knew the twist almost from the beginning. It has something of a Hallmark Channel feel with its feel-good solving of all the characters’ problems.
The film uses butterflies in various ways throughout the film to point to regeneration. But the concept of love finding ways into our lives is strongly put forward so that each conflict metamorphizes into new life. It’s overall concept is that love is transformative—and can even be so when it seems impossible. The true superpower that is discovered in the film is not invisibility or flying, but to feel the touch of love.
My True Fairytale is available in theaters and VOD.
Photos courtesy of Gravitas Ventures.
