Bridge To Terabithia

Starring: Josh Hutcherson, Anna Sophia Robb, Robert Patrick, and Zooey Deschanel

Written by: Katherine Patterson, David L. Patterson, and Jeff Stockwell

Directed by: Gabor Csupo

It would be difficult to find a movie as mismarketed as Bridge To Terabithia.  If you didn’t know the story based on Katherine Patterson’s novel, you might think that Terabithia was the latest attempt to produce a children’s fantasy tale along the lines of Golden Compass or the Chronicles of Narnia.  In reality, Terabithia has more in common with My Girl than it does with Aslan.

Based loosely on the true story of author Katherine Patterson’s son David (who helped with the screenplay), it is the story about a wayward boy who learns a lot about himself through another awkward wayward pre-teen whom he befriends.

It’s a very touching tale as written, but at times it struggles to find it’s voice amidst the plot.

12-year-old Jesse “Jess” Aarons (played almost disinterestedly by Josh Hutcherson) is a boy who lives with a poor family, causing him to have to wear his older sister’s old pink sneakers. His family is often too busy struggling to be supportive as he is often bullied at school, almost to the point of distraction.  After a couple of incidents it becomes redundant.

We get it.  He’s a poor kid being bullied.  Move on.

He is rescued by the arrival of a fellow 12-year-old.  Leslie Burke (played with stunning subtlety and presence by AnnaSophia Robb) is Jess’ next door neighbor who struggles in a very real way with her artist parents who are often in their own world.  Both parental relationships are well handled.  They are not portrayed in any black or white fashion.  The parents aren’t, nor should they be overly vilified, it just simply is the way it has to be.  They are not let off the hook completely, but it is refreshing to not see them shown as evil.

At school, Leslie is bullied as much as Jess, and when she enters a “boys only” race and wins, it gets worse.  Even Jess wants nothing to do with her, sour at losing the big race.  Leslie persists on meeting her neighbor which leads to Jess reluctantly talking with her.   They become quick friends after Jess shares his drawings with her.  They explore their surrounding area, finding a rope with which they swing across a small creek to the other side finding an abandoned tree house.  Using their vivid imaginations, they create this entirely new magical world in this side of the creek.

This is where the mismarketing comes in.  The film chooses to showcase their imagination as they see it.  It is not real to the viewer, but it is real to their world.  It’s a powerful coping mechanism as the two are rulers of Terabithia and they can be more courageous than they dreamed possible in real life, defeating evil creatures, and saving Terabithians.  Basing the creatures on the bullies they encounter at school, and in the case of the Dark Master, Jess’ father, they gain a true bond and are able to work out their difficulties.

As the journey back to reality, the two become inseparable as they plot against bullies by tricking them with false love notes, and Leslie gives Jess an expensive art kit while he gives her a dog named Prince Terrien in return.

The two go to church with his family where they are inspired to find bells for their castle in Terabithia.  Later on, Jess’ father asks him to get something out of the storage shed and gives him his keys.  He does so but drops the keys.

The next day, his father asks for the keys, but Jess can’t find them.  His father’s work keys were on the set and if he lost them, it will cost the family $600+ to replace them.  We discover soon after that his younger sister, May Belle had picked them up as bells for Leslie.  Jess is angry, partially due to how much his father had blamed him, but also subconsciously because May is infringing on him and Leslie’s world.

On each trip back and forth, the creek is swelling and they get closer and closer to the creek.

In the meantime, Jess has developed a slight crush on one of his teachers, Ms. Edmunds.  She has discovered his hidden talent of drawing and does her best to encourage it.

The two friends continue their journeys to Terabithia where their empire grows as do their feats of speed and bravery.  Eventually there comes a day, where as Leslie is leaving, that Jess looks at her a different way. It’s a look of innocent love.

The next morning, Ms. Edmunds calls on Jess and asks him if he would like to go to the museum in an effort to encourage his art.   He asks permission from his sleeping mother who kind of nods and grunts before falling back to sleep.  He assumes that was a yes and goes off with Ms. Edmunds.  He briefly thinks about asking Leslie, but wants alone time with Ms. Edmunds, so he doesn’t speak up as he looks at her house.

He shares a wonderful day with Ms. Edmunds and returns home to his parents who were worried sick, not knowing where he had been.  He doesn’t realize why they were so worried when they usually weren’t, when his father (played convincingly by Robert Patrick) tells him that Leslie had died earlier in the day.  She tried to swing across the creek, when the rope broke and she hit her head, causing her to drown in the creek.

Jess doesn’t believe it at all and refuses to acknowledge it, even while paying his respect to the family.  When he does accept it, he blames himself for leaving her alone.  If he had asked her to go along, she’d still be there…or even if he had been with her, he could have saved her.

He returns to Terabithia, and is followed by May.  He lashes out at May pushing her down and screaming at her that she doesn’t belong.  It’s his and Leslie’s and she should go home.  May runs home to her father.

Jess runs away into his imagination when it shows him the Dark Master chasing him down.  As he falls into his grasp, the dark master fades into Jess’ father who comforts his son, and advises him to keep the friednship alive for her sake.

Jess takes his time and chooses to do as his father advises.  He takes a fallen log, and transforms it by hand to create a bridge over the creek.  Returning home, he finds his sister and asks her to come with him. In a touching scene, he brings her to Terabithia where she becomes a princess and he the king as they are the new rulers of Terabithia.

It’s a very nice film that has some very good sequences, and a decent throughline.  Unfortunately, the pacing and redundancies hurt the overall effectiveness.   But as a tale of childhood innocence, you could do far worse.

B-