Bridge to Terabithia (2007)
Genre: Adventure
Format Viewed: Digital Cable
Filmography links and data courtesy of The Internet Movie Database.
Wow – I have no problems admitting that I’m a 27 year-old guy and I bawled my eyes out for the last twenty minutes of this movie!
It was probably the 4th or 5th grade when I first read this book, so it was like a trip down memory lane when I saw it on late night TV earlier this week. In fact, I could’ve sworn that I remembered seeing the actual film some fifteen years ago because it seemed like the kind of thing that we’d watch in class after the teacher made us trudge through the book … which left me more than a bit surprised when I saw that this film came out only last year! My best guess is that this is one of those that got lost my own scoffing after Narnia and The Golden Compass and every other “magical fantasy realm”-type movie that tried to become the next epic journey after Lord of the Rings, which is too bad because I actually would’ve paid to see this one in the theater…
Bridge to Terabithia was very much a true-to-heart kind of movie, in that they actually did quite a good job at holding off on the special effects and simply letting the story speak for itself. I remembered Jess’ initial struggles with opening his mind as he first stepped foot into the wild imagination of his new friend – there was no computer-generated world the moment they swung across the creek, but simply elements that came to life as they explored the way the creative mind tends to do when left on its own. Why Disney didn’t pump half the marketing of Narnia into Terabithia is beyond me because this was clearly the better film by a landslide.
The casting was spot on from Leslie’s parents all the way on down to Jess and Leslie themselves – Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb brought this childhood favorite of mine back to life wonderfully and I hope that the industry gives them other opportunities to play such carefree roles again. These two really sold me on the movie, coupled with the tiny Bailee Madison playing Jess’ sister who just barely helped to calm my tears down as her brother showed her Terabithia for the first time! And of course, I can’t fail to mention Zooey Deschanel, who always ends up playing the quirky roles that I just can’t get enough of … first saw her in The New Guy, loved her role in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and now Terabithia – talk about icing on an already wonderful cake…
This is the kind of film that we often say doesn’t get made anymore because it takes a truly heartfelt story of incredible growth and loss and presents it honestly without all of the glitz and glamour that was Narnia’s downfall. I don’t know how many more books from my childhood like this are still out there, but if they can do as good of a job transcribing those to the big screen then you can sign me up! And I’ve also gotta hope that Terabithia’s release last year at least got enough word of mouth to remind any schools that had somehow forgotten (as had I) and persuaded them to usher this tale back into their reading programs – if there’s a better child-level story that deals with such a devastating loss so gracefully, I haven’t read it.
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