My expectations and anticipation for this adaptation
of the grade-school literary staple were higher than for many
movies, but most of my enjoyment of the film stemmed from
nostalgia instead of the movie's actual strengths. As much
as I tend to love seeing my favorite books fleshed out on
screen, Disney's version of Bridge to Terabithia
is a strong argument to leaving some books untouched. Even
remaining fairly true to the source as they did (the film
was written by author Katherine Paterson's son), so much wasn't
the same, that the fifth-grader in me couldn't accept the
film for anything more than a poor attempt at capturing the
magic of the novel.
Bridge to Terabithia tells of lonely
seventh-grader Jesse (Josh Hutcherson), constantly the target
of bullying at school, and victim of a stressful home life.
When he befriends his new neighbor, the imaginative Leslie
(AnnaSophia Robb) they cope with their loneliness and boredom
by creating a magical world in the forest near their homes.
One can only reach it by swinging on a rope over a creek,
and can only see it if their mind is wide open; their new
realm is called Terabithia. Together they explore the expanses
of imagination and learn to help one another overcome the
turmoils of growing up.
In many ways the film suffers from the same
argument made against literary adaptations for years: it takes
away the viewer's ability to imagine the world themselves.
For a story which centers around a child's imagination, it
preaches one thing and counteracts its own message. Much of
the magic I remember from the book was missing in the film,
and the fantasies were more vivid on paper. Terabithia is
much more enjoyable when one imagines the world in their head,
the same way Leslie and Jess do, instead of relying on disappointing,
mediocre special effects to do it for them.
The film also suffers from weak performances
by nearly every adult actor. While Robb (of Because of
Winn-Dixie fame) and Hutcherson (Little Manhattan)
both deliver decent performances and cement themselves firmly
as some of today's most promising young actors, the same can't
be said for Robert Patrick and Zooey Deschanel, who phone
in their dry, one-dimentional characters as Jess's father
and the kids' teacher. Perhaps the most surprising acting
job came from seven-year-old Bailee Madison, who played Jess's
younger sister May Belle with all the cuteness and innocence
the role required.
Anyone who has read the book, and I wager that's
just about everyone who went to elementary school since it
was written and won the Newbury Medal in 1978, knows of the
dramatic and heartbreaking ending. Going into the film, I
knew this was coming the whole time, but allowed myself to
be surprised by it when the tragic event occurred. The effectiveness
of this scene was somewhat diminished due to the ominousness
of scenes before, both in pacing and tone. Had I never read
the book, I feel that it was so heavy leading up to the death
that I would have still seen it coming. While this weakened
the emotional climax of the scene in which Jess finds out
the terrible news, it enabled the film to spread the sadness
over the last fifteen minutes of the film for an even more
powerful sense of loss. I had expected to soak my handkerchief
at the film's conclusion but wasn't as moved as I might have
been were the climax and catharsis better coordinated. I'll
admit, though, that I did tear up and perhaps a few drops
fell, so it wasn't a complete failure, just a disappointment
from a fan of the book.
It's difficult to imagine myself a child again,
watching this at an age when Jess and Leslie don't seem so
different from myself. I wonder, if it hadn't been twenty
years since I first went to Terabithia, and if seventh grade
didn't seem an eternity ago, I wonder if this would have seemed
a better film to me. Perhaps part of my sadness was that I
have matured to an age where some of the magic that enchanted
me so as a child has passed, and I mourn that loss, and the
loss of the innocence this film so completely captures.
