Bridge to Terabithia

POSTED BY: Finn mac Cumhal
UPDATED: Saturday, March 24, 2007 22:53
VIEWED: 5864
PAGE 1 of 3

1 2 3 NEXT PAGE

FINN MAC CUMHAL

Saturday, February 17, 2007 10:46 PM

This is not exactly science fiction, but I wanted to bring this film to everyone’s attention because misleading advertising make it is easy to miss.

The advertisements for it depict a very fantasy laden, almost a third rate Narnia rip-off, type of film and while I absolutely loved Narnia (saw it four times at the cinema and a dozen more when I bought the DVD), I don’t want to waste money on a film whose only virtue is an advertisement scheme designed to steal Narnia’s popularity. But when I discovered that it got an 85% on rottentomatoes.com tomato meter, my curiosity was peeked. Also if you watch TV or live somewhere other then a whole in the ground, you’ve been inundated with this smelly wad of cow vomit called Norbit. I would never intentionally see this movie on my own, but I was out ruled by some friends who gave me a stupid look when I voted for Terabithia and promise me Norbit would be worth it. Damn friends. Anyway, today I went to see Terabithia on my own, I didn’t even bother with any of my so-called friends.

Enough back-story.

Bridge to Terabithia may prove to be the best film of 2007 and a film that rivals Narnia in its charm and warmth.

It is the story of poor fifth or sixth grade Jess, played convincingly by Josh Hutcherson, who is disillusioned by a meager rural life, overbearing father, tedious teachers and rotten kids at school who bully him incessantly. He escapes these hardships in a book where he draws imaginative pictures. Now if you’re thinking you’ve heard all this before on some cheesy Saturday Afternoon special, think again. There are no clichés or hyperbole here. Jess’s poverty is not some overdone commentary on society, but rather a realistic image of a poor farm household, where multiple mouths to feed make budgeting a necessity. His father is not some mean-spirited hateful figure, but a loving man who must put his priorities on keeping food on the table and therefore comes across sometimes too strict or too distant. His teachers are not all dull and those that are, prove to be deep and compassionate. And the bullies are not ruthless gangsters in middle School clothing, but trouble kids with their own difficult problems at home. Terabithia is far from the fantasy film that it is portrayed as; in many ways it is an unshakably real story that might have been taken almost verbatim from the lives of any poor child in rural America.

Jess is distant, unhappy and friendless. He’s constantly annoyed by his little sister, May Belle, whom he won’t even let sit next to him on the bus to school. May Belle is played earnestly by Bailee Madison, whose precocious worship of her big brother is adorable.

Starting school after the summer, Jess meets the new kid, Leslie Burke (AnnaSophia Robb). Robb does one of the best jobs in the whole film, creating a peppy and imaginative little girl who is almost a polar opposite of Jess. Where Jess is secluded and introverted, Leslie is lively and gregarious. They discover that they are neighbors, but more importantly, they are drawn together, ironically, by a common enemy. School Bullies deride Jess for being a loner and afraid and bully Leslie for being outspoken and fearless. Soon they become good friends who play pretend in the woods near Jess’s farm. Spirited on by Leslie’s boundless imagination they soon create a whole pretend world in which they play as king and queen of the fantasy realm of Terabithia.

It ambles along like this for a while, as Jess and Leslie fight all manner fantasy creatures in their pretend world, directly paralleling their struggle against bullies, family and themselves. The kids loved it, though I was just starting to lose interest when the shocker comes. I won’t reveal the ending, but it is powerful. Not many films leave me fighting back tears.

If you like fantasy, this film is fabulous, because it convincingly relates fantasy to the real world in ways no other film I’ve seen does.

If you’d rather drill a hole in your head, go see Norbit instead.

The official Disney site:

SAVEWASH

Saturday, February 17, 2007 11:36 PM

Thanks for the thoughtful review. You're right: the trailers make this look like a pretty dreadful rip-off movie, but what you've written makes me think I'll give it a chance.

Has anyone else seen it? What did you think?

"We need to keep our heads so we can ... keep our heads."

BULLETINTHEBRAINPANSQUISH

Sunday, February 18, 2007 12:09 AM

The minute I saw the poster for 'Bridge to Terabithia' hanging up at the cinema, I said 'they actually made it into a movie', and decided that I definitely wanted to see it. I remember reading the book when I was in primary school, so for me it's one of those nostalgia type things, I guess.

Mal gives control of the ship to Zoe...
Mal: If I'm not back in an hour, you come, and you rescue me.
Zoe: What? And risk my ship?

CYBERSNARK

Sunday, February 18, 2007 12:26 AM

I'm a fan of all fantasy movies, so I'm planning to see it anyway (this weekend was a choice between it and Ghost Rider; GR will still be around next weekend, this, being a children's movie in Cornwall, might not last the week).

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

AURAPTOR

Sunday, February 18, 2007 2:33 AM

Trying not to read anything about it, as i'm told it was darn good.

People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

NAFLM

Sunday, February 18, 2007 4:27 AM

Thank you for posting this! I saw the commercials and could have sworn that I read this book in grade school and that it wasn't quite what was being presented. I liked the book but was worried that they had made a movie out of just one aspect of the book; that, or that I was losing my mind and was confusing it with another book.

FINN MAC CUMHAL

Monday, February 19, 2007 5:15 AM

I’m happy to see that people are interested in this movie. I think you won’t be disappointed.

I was looking for reviews of Ghost Rider, when I discovered totally by accident how well Terabithia had been received by the critics. Ghost Rider really did not do very well with the critics, but that might not mean anything. Some movies aren’t meant to be clever, just fun; that’s the impression that I get from Ghost Rider. And I think the critics don’t always get that.

I’ve not read the book, so I can’t really comment on it, but some of the reviews I’ve read suggest that the book never placed much emphases of the fantasy element. This was something that was amped up for the movie with CGI special effects. Some critics have said that this was annoying, but personally, I felt that it was a great addition to the story. It wasn’t overdone and it drew you into Leslie’s and Jess’s fantasy world in a way that really couldn’t have been accomplished, even in the book. According to some critics, this made the movie better then the book.

I don’t know. Maybe I should read the book?

Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.

Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.

-- Cicero

AURAPTOR

Monday, February 19, 2007 10:40 PM

Snuck in after watching Ghost Rider. I say that, because I missed the 1st 15 - 20 minutes . It was a different kind of movie, to be sure. Where as I saw Narnia as a sort of Disney-esque version of Lord of the Rings, I didn't see anything Disney about this movie. Unless maybe one can compare it to Old Yeller or Bambi.

People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

YINYANG

Monday, February 19, 2007 11:07 PM

As someone who's read the book, I've been given the advice to not go and see it. It looks pretty trashed to me (compared to the book). It can't possibly stay with the book - there's not enough information in the book to describe the visuals in the trailers (I don't remember any actual descriptions of the kingdom they went to, just that they spent time there). Besides, I'm sure they messed up the ending, too, unless they stayed completely faithful to the book (the only book that almost made me cry). So, as much as I might want to go see it, to know how well they did just as a movie, the deviations wouldn't satisfy me (I feel the same way about the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings movies).

But, it's nice to see that someone enjoyed it.

Edited to add:

Quote:
Originally posted by Finn mac Cumhal:
I don’t know. Maybe I should read the book?

You read the book, I'll see the movie, and we'll compare notes. Okay?

Edited (again) to ask:

Does Leslie wear jeans in the movie? Does Jess run through the cow field? What about Janice Avery? What about Leslie thinking Christ's story was beautiful?

Edited (for the last time) because I remembered something:

Ack! Leslie has brown hair! Not blonde, brown! How hard is it to get the hair color right - it's here on the cover art!

Rules and voting: http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=2&t=22892

AURAPTOR

Tuesday, February 20, 2007 12:17 AM

Does Leslie wear jeans in the movie?

Select to view spoiler:

Short answer - Yes. Long answer... She wears 'pants', but once she wears a dress, when Jess asks her to go to church with him.

Does Jess run through the cow field? What about Janice Avery? What about Leslie thinking Christ's story was beautiful?

Select to view spoiler:

Don't know about that, came in late. Janice is a BIG part of the story. If you get my meaning.

And "Yes" to the Christ story.

Edited (for the last time) because I remembered something:

Ack! Leslie has brown hair! Not blonde, brown! How hard is it to get the hair color right - it's here on the cover art!

Select to view spoiler:

She's adorable. I don't care what color her hair is, the actress lights up the screen. Hey, Leslie's such a free spirit, she prob just dyed her hair!

Learn to roll, dog.

People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

1 2 3 NEXT PAGE