The film follows Gabriel Angel (Rakie Ayola), a young Caribbean aviator who falls in love with the forger Duncan Stewart (Jonathan Pryce) on her journey to England.

Stewart is pursued by his nemesis Rex Goodyear (John Hurt), and the group are supported by Dr Angela Bead (Vanessa Redgrave) and Miss Gwendolyn Quim (Dorothy Tutin), retired missionaries who become lovers during the voyage.

She explains that he has been there for two years working, and she is joining him so that she can fulfil her lifelong dream of becoming a pilot — inspired by her grandfather Thomas (Oliver Samuels) who flew off into a storm and never came home.

[6] The central themes of the story are "race, Hemingway, colonialism, love, lust, the [and the] '50s",[7] adapted into the screenplay in a manner Winterson intended to be reminiscent of a fairytale.

[8] She ascribes the roles of hero and heroine to Duncan and Gabriel, fairy godmothers to Miss Quim and Dr Bead, and non-archetypal villain to Rex Goodyear.

Fairytale never leaves the reader in a familiar spot, we are whisked away to a wood or a lake or a castle or an island, each a law unto itself made all the more uncomfortable because it isn't as weird as, say, planet Mars.

Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein requested that the ending be reworked prior to distribution, and Winterson was highly unhappy at being asked to write an additional conclusionary scene.

When these roles were cast, complaints were made by black members of the British actors' union to the BBC and the Department of Employment at having been "passed over" in favour of overseas artists.

[10] While Kidron had previously come to dislike directing for major studios when filming My Cousin Vinny for Fox, she found the low budget of Great Moments in Aviation "just as horrendous a compromise".

The characterisation is Cluedo with pretensions, and the dialogue suspends the actors in that ungainly, undignified dangle which you associate with stage flying, the wires robbing them of all powers of independent movement.

[24] He summarised the film as "a willfully theatrical, sporadically magical romantic comedy embracing three barely compatible narrative strands, not one of which ever gets full flight clearance".

[24] Rooney deemed the film "damaged beyond repair by a mannered scripting style and evident recutting",[24] and opined that "Jeanette Winterson's preposterous dialogue and comic mistiming serves up more misses than hits".

[26] Gilbert Gerard for The Independent selected the film as recommended viewing upon its BBC Two television debut, giving the mixed review: "So much acting talent, so little substance to play with - but the 1950s are authentically enough evoked.

"[27] David Bleiler was more positive about the film, writing in his TLA Video & DVD Guide that it "isn't some third-rate, quick-paycheck hack job mystery which the advertising suggests.

Bleiler stated that the cast are "stellar", Ayola is "radiant", and the revelatory scene between Angela and Gwendolyne is "wonderful", asserting: "Although slight, this is a perfect film for a nice, quiet evening at home".

[29] She described the resolution of the lesbian storyline as "a golden scene, beautifully photographed and exceptionally well paced",[29] and asserted that "For women of a certain age, this may be the most heart-rending (not to say, inspirational) depiction of a coming-out moment ever seen on screen.