Do fairies,ghosts and extra-terrestrial beings really exist? Some people reply in the positive and why? Because they have seen them. Others have recorded them on photographic film...or have they? Is it a trick of the light or an unexplained blur on the exposed film? Imagination in hand with wishful thinking can work miracles. In this film two little girls living in the beautiful English countryside claim that they not only saw fairies, but actually captured them on film. The rest of the movie records the reaction of the media and notable figures of World War 1 England. Houdini the great escapologist claims he never gives away the secret of his famous escapes (and do people really want to know and thus destroy the magic of the moment?) He believes that the children do hold a secret and he tells them never to reveal it. On the other hand Conan Doyle accepts the photographs as the truth (or says he does) and thus gains notoriety himself by publishing articles about the phenomenon. The story as it is related leaves us in a bit of a quandary - to believe or not to believe. Not a great film by any means despite the presence of top stars such as Harvey Keitel and Peter O'Toole, but the film is definitely worth seeing solely for the scenes in which the fairies appear. Shaped like slender dragon-flies with gauzy wings that flutter at lightning speed, they dart about in the most convincing manner. And they are not cartoon characters either, but real actors with their names listed in the credits. See the film just to be enchanted by these wonderful creatures and then ask yourself "If only........"
Review of FairyTale: A True Story
