Bridge to Terabithia

Bridge to Terabithia

Directed by: Gabor Csupo

Starring: Josh Hutcherson

Genre: Fantasy

Run Time: 95 min.

Release Date: February 2007

On The Web: Official Site

Teaser: Movie Trailer

Reviewed by Byron Merritt

There’s more than one bridge that is lacking in BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA. Trying to ascertain who this movie is targeted at is one that many parents won’t be able to cross, as well as gaps in almost all the fantasy elements.

Teasers and trailers would have most potential viewers believe it to be on-par with LORD OF THE RINGS or NARNIA. Perhaps not in production standards but at least in the story’s fantasy elements. Not so. The screenplay and direction seemed to be at odds with the story, trying to infuse more childlike wonder and imagination but being stymied by coherency and some very shabby acting and dialogue.

Bridge To Terabithia is based on Katherine Patterson’s Newberry Award winning children’s book by the same name. Given a wobbly structure by picture standards rather than anything approaching a solid children’s story, the film fails not only in entertaining visuals but also in that the themes that run through Patterson’s books are never given their comeuppance. We can see them more than feel them, which is a bummer considering how important some of the issues Patterson covers in her novels.

Josh Hutcherson (ZATHURA) stars as Jesse Aarons, a middle school boy with adult responsibilities on his parents’ farm. Living in the boondocks, Jesse is the butt of bullies and jokesters at his school. Finding comfort in his drawings, Jesse immerses himself in them, trying to escape life’s cruel realities. He’s a loner even amongst his family, where his sisters and parents rarely acknowledge his existence. Then one day a young girl arrives at his school and opens Jesse’s mind to the unseen. AnnaSophia Robb is Leslie Burk (CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY), the daughter to fiction writers who takes a liking to Jesse. Running into the backwoods near their homes, Jesse and Leslie form a friendship based on escapism and fantasy. But the worlds begin colliding as Jesse and Leslie take their made-up world and incorporate its sense of right and wrong on the real one. The results are no big surprise. The bullying stops. Respect is achieved. Toughness grows.

The largest problem with the story is that its target audience is a complete mystery. The dialogue is junior enough to be in league with films such as THE LABYRINTH but the themes are often adult, including extrapolations on the need for God and religion as well as how to deal with an emerging sexual attraction for a teacher, and the death of a student. These dichotomies were just too broad to be ...um ...bridged.

The other issue is the out-and-out misconception that this is some sort of visually stunning fantasy movie. It isn’t. These elements are few and often incongruous with the trailers that littered screens before its release or on parallel DVDs that beg you to rent or buy this film, too.

Bridge To Terabithia isn’t for young kids and it will bore and/or anger adults to the point where they’ll want to banish the DVD posthaste from whence it came.