Cady's Take:

Danny (Rhys Ifans) is a construction worker who can think of nothing else but his upcoming holiday, a camping trip with his best girl Trudy (Justine Clarke). When she disappoints him by canceling, he decides to tie some balloons to his favorite deck chair and soon he is soaring into the sky. Trudy tries to chase after him but Danny drifts into the clouds and is, literally, lost in space.

A storm blows him far away where he crashes into a tree in the front yard of a beautiful but unhappy, police officer named Glenda (Miranda Otto), in the small town of Clarence Australia.

While the media back home go crazy trying to find him, Danny slowly integrates himself into this new, strange but wonderful world where he finds himself quite at home. Within days Clarence has accepted Danny as one of it's own, and he has even become somewhat of a celebrity.

Is "Danny Deckchair" a romantic comedy? Is it an adventure tale? Is it an exploration of the meaning of life? The movie tries to be all three, and fails to come up with the full experience for any of them, but remains a charming movie nonetheless. Rhys Ifans plays Danny, a loveable cement worker in a loveless but affectionate marriage with Trudy, a woman who is clearly too materialistic for his simple tastes. One day Danny decides to build a makeshift aircraft out of a lawn chair and some helium balloons and off he sails. After he lands he begins a new life with Glenda (Miranda Otto) and a different adventure begins.

I think I might have liked this movie more if it were not quite so unevenly constructed. However Rhys Ifans is incredibly charming and movies with "stranger in a strange town" storylines are often interesting in and of themselves. I like when townspeople rally behind the Mysterious Stranger. Even if it is formulaic, it is heartwarming when Danny finds himself and real love after landing his deckchair in Glenda's backyard.

This movie is sweet and unassuming, it does not have any message really except "find happiness where you can". I can think of worse messages to make a movie with.