| BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA |
 2007 - USADirector: Gabor Csupo
- Reviewed by Vickie
Based on the book by Katherine Paterson, the film revolves around preteen outsiders Jess (Joshua Hutcherson) and Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb), who share active imaginations and escape the troubles of their real lives—including, but not limited to, bullies at school and financial woes on the home front—by creating the titular made-up kingdom in the forest where they reign as king and queen. Using their friendship as a touchstone for mustering courage in the face of danger or gathering strength in times of hardship, Jess and Leslie tackle their problems by imagining fantastical, similarly themed scenarios and then joining forces to conquer their foes. Problem is, the film—like the book—is grounded in reality and punctuated by fantasy, not the other way around. So, much of the time onscreen is spent at the kids’ school, where they’re terrorized by a behemoth girl named Janice (Lauren Clinton), or at Jess’s borderline-impoverished home, where he duct-tapes his running shoes together and eavesdrops as his parents argue over where they’ll get the money to feed the family. The mystical creatures of Terabithia barely get any screen time, and most of them aren’t revealed until the film’s final frames. As such, the film is a little heavier than you might expect, and it’s much more of a drama than a feel-good kids’ movie. There’s also something of a misfire in a subplot involving Jess and his crush on Ms. Edmonds (Zooey Deschanel), the free-spirited young music teacher at the school. Their bond, or Jess’s reasons for his crush, are never really made clear, so the scene where Ms. Edmonds calls Jess at home and invites him to accompany her to a museum comes off as strangely skeevy... especially when he turns to her in the car and says, "Maybe we can do this again sometime..." in a way that sounds much weirder and more adult than it should. Performance-wise, both kids are great. Robb channels a young Natalie Portman and her Leslie is spunky and brave and smart, while Hutcherson’s Jess is appropriately noble and boyish and unassumingly charming. Their relationship is presented in an almost romantic way, unlike the strictly platonic nature it took in its print form, but it works fine here. Save for T2 villain Robert Patrick, who co-stars as Jess’s father, all of the adults are non-descript and non-memorable... which, I suppose, could be part of the point. And Deschanel, skeevy scene notwithstanding, makes for a believable object of affection for any young lad. Again, if you’re expecting an eye-popping fantasy film, you’d best look elsewhere. But if it’s a rainy Sunday afternoon and you need to find something to entertain a group of unfussy eleven-year-olds for 90 minutes, Bridge to Terabithia might do the trick. |
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As far as adaptations of beloved children’s books go, this one is okay.
Much like recent predecessors such as Because of Winn-Dixie or
Hoot, the family friendly film is decent but certainly not
exceptional, and many audience members may be disappointed with the
lack of fantasy content given the CGI-heavy trailers.
