Bridge to Been There, Done That
Synopsis: Fifth-grader Jesse (Josh Hutcherson) is an introverted loner and a budding artist. Harassed by bullies, teased by his peers, and even shunned by his hardware store-running father (Robert “T-1000” Patrick), Jesse had little to look forward to in his lonely, mundane small-town life. When new girl Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb) comes to town, a friendship soon develops between the two when they discover that they share an affinity for imaginary worlds with strange creatures and heroic quests.
One of the problems being a movie freak is that you’d eventually get seasoned by the tons of stuff that you watch, especially if it’s a retread of a popular tale or genre. Regardless of the quality and craftsmanship put into it, a revenge flick will share familiar elements with movies like Kill Bill and Gladiator, no matter how well or differently you dress it up. Unless you’ve never seen these kinds of movies before, or you have some sort of fetish for them, it’s still going to feel a little tedious, one way or the other. Bridge to Terabithia, sadly is one of them same-old, same-old, but a well-done same-old, same-old. It’s still a typical tear-jerking coming-of-age drama, with the obligatory tragedy for a young protagonist to come-of-age to. There are bullies to overcome, cute teachers to have a crush on, and impassive fathers to bond with. Fortunately, the movie doesn’t pander too much and go for cheap shots at the heartstrings. There were some plot developments that surprised me, while the acting performances are uniformly good. But the best parts are when Leslie teaches Jesse how to use his imagination to bring the world of Terabithia to life. You have to admit the movie did a good job in explaining the virtues of something as abstract as the imagination, whether or not the whole Narnia-inspired flights of fancy was your cup of tea.
And speaking of Narnia, Bridge to Terabithia has one of the most misleading marketing campaigns ever, with trailers and posters depicting so many fantasy creatures and backdrops, you’d assume this was another special effects extravaganza of Lord of the Rings proportions. The fantasy bits probably took up five percent of the running time at most. This is a reality-based children’s drama through and through, but still a good one for kids to watch, though I wouldn’t recommend it to grizzled movie fans. - BMF
Directed by Gabor Csupo (Dance) and screenplay by Jeff Stockwell (The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys) and David Paterson (Fragments). Stars Josh Hutcherson, AnnaSophia Robb, Robert Patrick and Zooey Deschanel. Based on the book by Katherine Paterson. |
