THE BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA is an exquisite children’s film marketed at older kids, and thereby in danger of losing the adult demographic, an audience that would love it as much, if not more, than those kids. Though it directly addresses the darker side of being a kid, bullies, parents who aren’t perfect, it also speaks to what it means to be a good person in spite of all that, of rising above the present and not being just a better person, being a happier one, too. Never preachy and never condescending, it possesses the essence of good storytelling as well as a rare and insightful intelligence about the secret world of children.
Terabithia is the magic kingdom created out of whole cloth by Jess (Josh Hutcherson) and Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb) Mostly Leslie. She’s the new kid in rural Lark Creek off to a less than auspicious start when on her first day she has to sit at the teacher’s desk due to a furniture shortage, and then ticks off the school’s 8th grade bully, the hulking, badly pedicured Janice (Lauren Clinton), who charges the younger kids to use the bathroom. Jess, a lifelong resident of Lark Creek has his own issues with Janice, as well as two kids in his own class who are majoring in tormenting Jess. It doesn’t help that on the first day of school, his mother, concerned about what people will think if her only son turns up in sneakers held together with duct tape, tosses them out and gives him his older sister’s pink and-me-downs to wear instead. Money is an issue in Jess’ family, one that is always in the background chatter and it weighs heavily on him, as does being the middle child and the only boy among four sisters, all of them squabbling most of the time. In classic middle-child fashion, Jess has become the quiet one, and only a little resentful of the way his father showers affection on his younger sister May Belle, losing himself in drawing fanciful and fantastic creatures. Leslie, sensing a kindred spirit draws him out, matching him in imagination and in racing, Jess’ other passion. On run through the woods, the discover a dry creek bed and a rope to swing over to the other side, something Leslie does with wild abandon, coaxing Jess to stop worrying so much and enjoy the sensation of flying. On the other side, Leslie creates Terabithia, a once happy kingdom under the sway of the Dark Master and his minions, the hairy vultures, the ogres, and the peculiar hybrids. They have been sent to free the kingdom with the help of the small winged warriors that look like dragonflies to Jess until Leslie sets him straight.
Director Garbor Csupo, he of the animation empire, shows an intuitive sensitivity to the world of children. His is a restrained hand in revealing Terabithia to the audience, taking Jess’ matter-of-fact point of view and only slowly letting the magic have its way with both him and us. This is not a magic realm found by a change in place, but with a change in attitude, or, as Lesley puts it, keeping an open mind. A quality that Ms Edmonds (Zooey Deschannel as an irresistible free-spirit with authentic BoHo fashion sense), the music teacher on whom Jess has a speechless sort of crush, finds dead on perfect. Though Jess is following Leslie’s lead in who and what inhabits Terabithia, it becomes obvious who many of the creatures represent, especially the Dark Lord. It is imagination that allows them both, particularly Jess, to work out issues of varying types and intensity on a suitably pre-teen psychological level. Which is not to say that the flights of inventiveness are nothing less than inspiring, as are the way Csupo and company bring them to life in the real forest, morphing shadows into ogres, woodland creatures exploding into squogres, who are squirrels on steroids complete with ‘roid rage and odd little hats with menacingly dangling maces. The more delicate touches are no less captivating, such as a stream of sunlight captured in a handbag for later use.
Solid performances are key in THE BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA, adding the final panache that elevates this tale from a diverting fable to a film of true substance. Robb is a ray of sunshine herself, incandescent and strong without trying, while Hutcherson exhibits an incipient melancholy that bespeaks troubles beyond his years and comprehension. It’s Robert Patrick who deserves the most kudos as Jess’ father, a truly decent guy as tough on his son as he is on himself to keep his sprawling family afloat, so caught up in his own world of woe that he has stopped seeing his son at all. This is what makes THE BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA the same timeless classic that the novel is. This is about hope and disappointment, injustice and compassion, unorthodox and surprisingly sophisticated considerations of religion done with the straightforward exposition to be expected in a pre-teen, and all executed with the clear-eyed sensibility of a thoughtful child. It will break your heart, mend it, and then make it cheer.
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