Friday, June 17, 2016

Family Movie Night: Bridge to Terabithia

Title: Bridge to Terabithia
Director: Gábor Csupó
Original Release: 2007
Choice: Purple Penguin's
My Overall Rating: 3 stars out of 5
via Wikipedia
Bridge to Terabithia is based on Katherine Paterson's novel of the same name.  Jess Aarons (Josh Hutcherson) is a talented but socially awkward 12-year-old boy who becomes friends with the new girl Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb), just moved in next door.  Neither makes easy connections with the kids at school but they are drawn to each other.  Together, they create a fantasy world in the woods called Terabithia, one that becomes vividly alive on screen.  Jess's younger sister May Belle (Bailee Madison) tries to tag along but Jess is eager to keep this part of his life to himself so he pushes her away.

In time, tragedy strikes and it hits hard.  What began as a story about a search for belonging becomes one about coping with loss.  The change is quite abrupt, in some ways a little too abrupt.  But then, life is like that, isn't it?

Obviously, the story relies heavily on child actors: always a risk.  Fortunately, Robb and Madison are both delightful.  Hutcherson is a bit stiff, though maybe that's not so inappropriate for the character.  Somebody liked what they saw.  Terabithia was the first big role for Hutcherson on the path that eventually saw him cast as Peeta Mellark in the Hunger Games series.

The visual elements of the fantasy world are fun, though really Terabithia ends up being a relatively minor part of the story.  Ultimately, the path we follow is Jess's emotional journey and it's a compelling one.

12 comments:

  1. I loved the book, even re-reading it as an adult, but I didn't so much love the movie.

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    1. We had watched the movie several years ago and my daughter has read the book in the time since. I have not. Interestingly, Paterson based the book on an experience of her own son, growing up not far from my hometown in Maryland.

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  2. Sounds interesting, I'm making lists!

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  3. Hutcherson was in the movie?! I'll have to see it again. My students read that book, and cried. So did I.

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    1. Yes, it would be hard not to tear up over this story.

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  4. I loved this movie and I cried, cried and then cried some more. I like "small" movies like this.
    Thank Goodness you posted this as I sorta got raked over the coals for not having or wanting to see the movie Field of Dreams and I am a huge baseball fan ! Just didn't appeal to me.
    Oh well, I am happy everyone loved it but me. I didn't like Titanic either !

    cheers, parsnip and thehamish

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    1. I can't stand Titanic! And that Celine Dion song is downright torturous.

      I've always been fond of Field of Dreams but let's not kid ourselves. There's only one Costner baseball movie that matters. Bull Durham is an underappreciated masterpiece.

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    2. I know it is to a father son thing but I just can't get enthused about it.
      Like Bull Durham though.

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    3. I love it, though I have not watched it in a while. I went to college in Iowa, where the story takes place. I would watch Field of Dreams at the end of the summer as a matter of ritual before going back to school.

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    4. I have a couple other movies like that. I watch Hoosiers and Philadelphia Story once a year each.

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