I usually don’t watch live-action films aimed at younger audiences, but since I’d heard some good things about Bridge to Terabithia, I decided to give it a try. I know that some people were expecting it to be similar to The Chronicles of Narnia and were disappointed to realize that wasn’t what this film was like at all. However, I was somewhat familiar with the story before going in, so that wasn’t an issue with me.
Bridge to Terabithia is based on an award-winning children’s novel by Katherine Paterson. Though I never read the book when I was growing up, it was a favorite of several close friends, so I actually heard a lot about the plot and remembered that it sounded pretty interesting. Unfortunately, I never got around to reading it back then, so the movie version was my first real encounter with the story.
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Jess Aarons (played by Josh Hutcherson) is a lonely pre-teen who seems to attract only negative attention. Whether it’s from his four sisters who complain about his table manners or body odor; from his father who thinks Jess needs to get his head out of the clouds, forget about his fanciful drawings, and focus on his chores; or from the school bullies who consider him an easy target, the insults, reprimands, and rebukes fly at Jess with regularity.
This begins to change when Leslie Burke (AnnaSophia Robb) moves in next door. She’s like Jess in nearly every way, so it’s not surprising that they quickly become friends. One of their favorite things to do together is cross a creek behind their houses and explore the woods back there. They find an abandoned tree house, fix it up a bit, and make it their own, a place they retreat to on a daily basis.
Together, Jess and Leslie imagine the woods as a magical land named Terabithia, where they rule as king and queen. Terabithia is filled with dangers such as giant trolls and marauding monkeys, as well as friendly creatures like sword-wielding dragonflies. Jess and Leslie have many exciting and dangerous adventures in their imaginary world, and their friendship grows deeper by the day.
As the film progresses, Jess and Leslie both face different challenges at home and at school. They find strength and resolve in their friendship, which helps them persevere through the difficult times. But then real tragedy strikes, and one of them is left to overcome the biggest challenge of all.
My Reaction: I have to say that I ended up liking Bridge to Terabithia far more than I thought I would! I think this can mostly be attributed to the performances of the two lead actors, Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb. I’d never seen Hutcherson in anything before, but really liked his take on Josh here. He hit all the right notes, and was neither an insufferably sullen and withdrawn jerk nor an overly pathetic loser. He played Jess as a regular kid who just happens to be picked on for dumb reasons.
I vaguely remember Robb from Because of Winn-Dixie, and looking at my review of that film, I see that I enjoyed her effort in that film as well. She was even better in Bridge to Terabithia, and like Hutcherson, struck just the right note as Leslie. She was neither too flighty nor too grounded, but possessed the perfect mixture of imagination and real-world practicality.
There were weaknesses in the film, particularly with the bad CGI sequences for some of the Terabithia scenes. None of those effects looked good at all, so I would have preferred to see less of that stuff. Also, none of the adult characters were well developed at all, which I guess is to be expected from a movie aimed at kids. Still, it would have helped to know a bit of background about Jess’s father so I could try to figure out why he never gave the kid a break.
On the whole, I thought Bridge to Terabithia was an entertaining and engrossing story, and give it 6.5 stars out of 10. Sure, it will appeal to kids a lot more than to adults, but if you’re in the mood for this kind of story, give it a try!