Three Wishes

In the 1950s, young Tom (Mazzello) is in a car with his mum and little brother Gunny when they accidentally hit a homeless hitchhiker as they swerve to avoid his dog. Instead of popping him off to Accident and Emergency, mum Jeanne (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) decides to take the man in, determined to look after him until his broken leg has healed. (This may sound far-fetched but do remember that the man, Jack, looks quite a lot like Patrick Swayze.) And what a household Jack moves into. Tom’s dad is missing, presumed dead, in the Korean War. Tom doesn’t fit in with the local kids because he is no good at sport, and Gunny, meanwhile, has a painful stomach and doesn’t look very well at all…
As the title suggests, there’s magic on the way, though. Jack has an air of the supernatural and tells the boys of a genie with the power to grant three wishes. Older audiences will twig what happens next, but smaller viewers will be enchanted by this sweet little tale that features a nice central performance from Mazzello (best known as the boy in Jurassic Park) and a mystical one from Swayze.