Restless Spirits 2001 Horror Movie Review

This gentle, modern-day fairy tale explores a family trying to recover from a father’s death. Katie is a combative 12-year-old; her brother Simon is almost mute; their mother desperately needs time to rebuild her life. She takes the kids to visit their dad’s mother in Newfoundland where Grandmother Lydia (played with grounded depth by Marsha Mason) tells Katie she understands that she has “to stay angry or you’ll forget him.” Lydia says that “some people have the gift of seeing,” and Katie and Simon prove her right when they meet Charles Nungesser and François Coli, historical French aviation heroes who disappeared trying to beat Lindbergh across the Atlantic in 1927. These lost souls repeat their fateful crash into the swamp every time the fog comes in. Katie realizes they must finish the flight to enable their escape to heaven and begins the improbable task of raising their plane from the deep. The antagonistic relationship of the aristocratic and pompous Nungesser and his kindly navigator is portrayed with picaresque charm by the charismatic Lothaire Bluteau and the humanistic Michel Monty. Nungesser bemoans being beaten by a “mailman,” while Coli mourns the loss of his wife and child. Resurrecting L’Oiseau Blanc helps Katie interact positively with people and develop friendships. By the magical climax, she learns what inspired her father to be a test pilot. —Lloyd Chesley