RADIO FLYER (1992)

RADIO FLYER (PG-13) The first feel-good movie about child abuse. It's 1969, and Bobby (Joseph Mazzello) and Mike (Elijah Wood), two brothers of about 8 and 10, have just moved to California with their newly divorced mom (Lorraine Bracco). The music gushes, the late-afternoon sunlight glints, and one half expects to look up and see E.T. himself grinning from the nearest bush. At the same time, an undertow of darkness develops: The boys' new stepfather (Adam Baldwin) is a sadistic, beer-swilling roughneck who takes out his rage on defenseless little Bobby. In essence, director Richard Donner has implanted a Freddy Krueger movie in the middle of a Spielbergian reverie. When Bobby climbs aboard his souped-up Radio Flyer wagon and actually flies (or does he?), the film comes close to saying that being a battered child isn't so bad, < as long as you get to escape into a blockbuster dreamworld. C

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