Eric D. Snider
Bridge to Terabithia
Movie Review
"Bridge to Terabithia"
Review by Eric D. Snider
Grade: B
Rating: PG
Released: Friday, February 16, 2007
Directed by:
Cast:
In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that I wept like a baby at the end of "Bridge to Terabithia." If a movie's quality were judged solely on the basis of how many tears it elicited, I'd have to give this one an A+.
Thank goodness there are other factors to consider. Based on the beloved 1977 young adult novel by Katherine Paterson, the film is sometimes as gawky and awkward as its adolescent characters, occasionally a little ungraceful in the way it handles itself. Yet like so many films of its genre, it redeems itself by being good-natured and sincere, and by touching the viewer's heart without manhandling it.
It's set in an anonymous rural town in an unnamed state, and it depicts children of an uncertain age. (They're fifth-graders in the book, but they seem more mature than that here.) Jesse (Josh Hutcherson) is the middle of five children in a poor family, and the only boy. His dad (Robert Patrick) works at a hardware store; Mom (Kate Butler) is a homemaker. With his hand-me-down shoes and his family's financial situation, Jesse is often the target of bullies at school, where he has a secret schoolboy crush on the pretty music teacher (Zooey Deschanel) who visits the class weekly.
Then he becomes friends with a new girl, Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb), whose family has moved in next door. She's a bit of an outcast, too, being the new kid in school, and her vivid imagination makes her seem like a loony. Soon Leslie and Jesse are traipsing through the woods near their homes, spending their afternoons imagining magical kingdoms and living in their harmless fantasies.
Their relationship is platonic and without any major hurdles. The conflicts are elsewhere: They're both frequently harassed by bullies, including a troll-like girl named Janice (Lauren Clinton), and Jesse, a budding artist, can't relate to his no-nonsense father. Widening that gap is the way Dad dotes on Jesse's pesky little sister, May Belle (Bailee Madison). Why can't he be that close to Jesse?
Around the halfway mark, the film suddenly shoehorns some Christianity into the story, with the revelation that Jesse's family are regular churchgoers (first we've heard of it), and with Leslie accompanying them one Sunday. This leads to a post-church conversation between Leslie, Jesse, and May Belle about heaven and hell and who's going where.
How is all this relevant? It isn't, really. A tragic event later in the film causes two characters to talk about heaven and hell again, but it still feels like it was wedged forcibly into the story. Same with Leslie's kooky home life, where she's the only child of two free-spirited novelists who won't let her watch TV: Why?
And then there's that tragic event I mentioned. It might be TOO tragic for a film aimed at such young audiences, but the movie (directed by animator Gabor Csupo in his first live-action feature) handles it realistically and with great tenderness. Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb give winning performances as Jesse and Leslie, too, which makes the sadness more palatable.
Not that it's a sad movie, really; it's a poignant, hopeful movie with a couple sad turns. Kids above the age of about 10 can probably appreciate its mature themes of love and family, and I can attest to the film's effectiveness on certain adults, too.
Grade: B
Rated PG, a couple hells and damns, some intense themes; not for extremely young children
1 hr., 35 min.
Copyright © Eric D. Snider.
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This item has 15 comments
February 20, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Having read the book when I was actually in 5th Grade, as a new kid at a school in a rural town (where all the other kids had known each other their whole lives), the 4th child out of six in a very poor church-going family, and a budding musician, I related to almost every single thing going on in the book. All except for the tragic event that Eric mentioned. I was essentially living large aspects of both characters' lives at the same time, and I loved that book so much. And I balled like a little girl, too. I am glad that they were pretty faithful to the book, even if the trailers for the movie have little to do with anything other than the imaginative sequences in Terabithia itself.
February 20, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Oh boy- I loved the movie- and cried like a baby at the end too. I took my daughters to see it- while my 10 year old sailed right through it and appreciated it- my 8 year old was teary eyed at the end right along with me. It was nice to see a film that was not so fantastic that that was the only reason to see it- and it was nice to see that children, mine in this case, could be touched by a simple story that had nothing more to rest it's laurels on than the incredible gift of imagination, friendship, and loss.
February 20, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Saw this last night. A few parts of the story seemed clunky, but I thought it was a good film overall.
February 21, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Thank heavens they followed the book. I saw another review last week stating the kids found an actual fairy kingdom in the middle of the woods and almost fell over. Good to know a producer/director can let life be real now and then. Hopefully, they still have the race, too.
February 21, 2007 at 4:00 pm
I was worried about the fantasy elements myself. I may actually go see it now.
February 22, 2007 at 1:57 pm
I remember reading the book in either elementary or middle school (can't remember which). I took a pencil and blacked out all the damns and hells in the book.
Does Robert Patrick play anything other than an emotionally distant father, a la "Walk The Line"?
February 22, 2007 at 11:11 pm
I went and saw this two nights ago. (I think). I rather liked it, but did mention to my husband that it was a little awkward at times. This review is spot on though.
Overall, I did like the movie and I forgot about the awkwardness of the beginning, when the middle and the last part happened... and I cried all over the place at the end, at least as hard as (if not harder than) I did when I read the book in elementary school. (Thank goodness for understanding husbands) :P Definitely would like to see it in the future, but I don't think I would see it in theatres again.
March 1, 2007 at 7:45 am
I agree that the Christianity discussion was pretty well out of nowhere; it did play in reasonably well at the end, but I just took it (at the time) as another example of how "free spirited" and bohemian and whatever Leslie's family was.
And, yeah, I cried right along with you guys. My wife (who made a point to tell me later that she saw it coming) wasn't immune, either.
A very well-crafted and moving movie, to be sure. (I didn't realize it was based on a book, though. Is the book worth checking out, even as a jaded adult?)
March 2, 2007 at 6:28 pm
I was really worried about this movie because the book is one of my favorites and the previews made it look like a fantasy, which it certainly ISN'T. But I thought they did a great job. The kids were cute, but not annoyingly so. And they left the classic story in tact.
I am actually shocked at how many people have NOT read this book. It was required back when I was in school... not that I needed it to be, I wanted to read it anyway (even though it makes me cry EVERY TIME I read it!). It won a Newbery Medal, and yes, I recommend the book to jaded adults as well. But have Kleenex handy.
March 3, 2007 at 1:31 am
The "shoehorning of Christianity scene" as you term it was in the original novel. Just sayin'.
March 10, 2007 at 7:54 pm
What John Ellis said. I haven't seen the film yet, but in the book Jesse's family only goes to church on Easter Sunday. Leslie accompanies them, is touched by the crucifixion/resurrection story and immediately realizes the connection with Aslan of Narnia. I'm looking forward to seeing how this scene was handled. It's gutsy of any movie these days to interject Christianity, even if all it's doing is being perfectly faithful to its source material.
March 15, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Hmm, never heard of this book. Maybe being that I'm in my 30s I'm too old for when it came out?
I don't know, sounds like a rental. Not really something I would be much into. But I'll check it out since it's gotten so many good reviews from people here.
Just not big into christianity in my movies. It can be sublte like the Narnia movie, but I don't like it being talked about. I'm just kooky that way :)
March 17, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Christianity is only mentioned a couple of times in the book and film, Genevieve.
In both cases, it's discussed mainly to condemn the viewpoint that people who die without being baptized and/or didn't read the Bible will be automatically condemned to Hell.
And despite what Eric says in his review, in both cases it's brought up because it's important to the story Katherine Paterson was trying to tell.
March 23, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Why is it that whenever I leave a movie, my personal grade of it is always artificially high when compared to the final grade left in my mind, a few days later, which I always KNOW is the right grade? I'm too nice... I almost always end up at about what Eric gives, though--I left Rocky Balboa thinking "A" before realizing it really *was* a B+, and I left this thinking "A-" before having it dawn on me that it was really just a B.
There is one thing I disagree with, though. I thought the heaven/hell issue, however minor a detail in the movie, WAS both a nice touch and well-handled. I'm too lazy right now to point out WHY I feel this way, so I guess that makes me a bad writer.
March 27, 2007 at 3:16 pm
hey josh grt job luv ya soooooooooooooooo much good luck with shannon