I never read Bridge to Terabithia when I was in school. I don’t know why; the book was first published in 1977, the year I was born, and has been read in classrooms ever since. My sister read it and later told the story to me (I remember thinking what a strange word “Terabithia” seemed to be). By the time the movie came along I had forgotten all but the general outlines of the story. After watching the movie I quickly read the book and was pleased to find that everything worth loving in the book is in the movie, and that a few things have been developed and strengthened.
Bridge to Terabithia (2007) tells the story of Jess Aarons (Josh Hutcherson). A talented artist and a bit of an outsider, Jess comes from a good family that has fallen on hard times when money is tight and everybody feels the strain. He’s bullied at school and doesn’t seem to have any friends. His little sister May Belle (Bailee Madison) tags along and looks up to him, but seems to mostly get on his nerves. He also has a crush on his music teacher, Miss Edmunds (Zooey Deschanel).
When Jess’s new neighbor Leslie Burke (AnnaSophia Robb) joins his class, they tentatively strike up a friendship. Leslie has a unique style of dress and a sunny disposition, and immediately becomes somewhat of an outcast. But Jess and Leslie’s friendship exists outside the realms of what the other kids at school think. As their friendship deepens, Leslie is able to unlock Jess’s imagination. As they play in the woods near their homes, they create the imaginary kingdom of Terabithia where Jess and Leslie are the rulers and defenders, and where they can get away from everyday worries.
At this point I must mention that the marketing campaign for Bridge to Terabithia was horribly misleading. The scenes where Jess and Leslie are in Terabithia are seen with great detail to illustrate the power of their combined imaginations. Unfortunately, these were the scenes the movie ads focused on, making it look like some kind of low-rent fantasy film. People complained that the movie doesn’t have enough fantasy in it―that it didn’t meet their expectations, not realizing that, since they were grossly misinformed, their expectations were unrealistic. This is a movie about real life, and about true friendship.
Leslie is the friend that Jess needs, and Jess turns out to be the friend that Leslie needs, too. When Jess sees the way Leslie interacts with her parents, they seem to have a connection that Jess doesn’t have with his own family, but we’re also able to see that Jess has things in his life that Leslie doesn’t have. Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb are entirely convincing as the two unlikely friends. Josh Hutcherson is likable and easily gains our sympathy, and AnnaSophia Robb has one of the brightest smiles you’ll ever see.
I have never related to a movie character the way I have with Jess Aarons. It really takes me back to how it felt to be that age, the desire to become an artist, the bullying at school, the dependence on imaginary worlds. Certain moments in this movie reminded me so strongly of my own life that I couldn’t believe how deeply I was drawn in by the characters and the story.
The movie gets so many details right: the way we can love our family members and be annoyed with them at the same time; the way some kids pick on others for seemingly no reason; the way kids view adults; the way your imagination becomes an all-important way to escape when things are hard at school and at home.
I love how the music by Aaron Zigman reflects the adventurous feeling that Jess and Leslie share when they’re together. I like how, after they have fun in Terabithia, the movie cuts to the very ordinary-looking Aarons home. I like that Miss Edmunds, Jess’s first crush, is the one that takes him to a museum for the first time and encourages him as an artist. And I admire the handling of a prank that Jess and Leslie play on the bully Janice Avery (Lauren Clinton) after she goes too far. The results are unexpected and serious but in ways we don’t anticipate.
One of the best things about the movie is how the characters are given full dimensions. People have more depth to their personalities than we can see at first, which Jess comes to realize. Even his teacher, “Monster Mouth” Myers (Jen Wolfe), is revealed to have human feelings. Through much of the film, Jess’s dad (Robert Patrick) is hard on his son, but when times are tough, that’s how kids sometimes see their parents. We eventually get to see just how much Jess’s dad really cares and understands.
I tend to get defensive when I discuss Bridge to Terabithia. Part of the reason why is due to the poor marketing, but another part of it is due to the feeling that people misunderstand the purpose of the story. I think it shows how things really are in our lives, the good and the bad. I think the ultimate point of the story is to show us how to cope, how to rise above, and how to draw strength from friendship and family. Just like in real life.
3 comments:
Gone is the marsh, the slew which was once my backyard. The cattails, the red-winged-blackbirds, the asparagus, the tadpoles and water-skeeters, the muskrats running with an apple in their mouth. Yet the slew of memories of building log pathways and forts, of little knights saving frogs from the lawnmower, of the neighboring kingdom feasting on saltines and radishes like we were our own little tribe of merry men, no, this slew is not gone.
"How creative!" I said to the two teenagers in my living room watching this movie with me. I was absolutely captivated how this story was playing with my experiential knowledge of childhood imagination and was actually giving what I usually look for in entertainment -- the escape . . .
But then it played with my grief.
Not just a little grief, like a friend moving away or the tooth fairy smashing into a windshield.
No, this was the kind of grief which has all systems firing to launch post traumatic stress syndrome. The viewer is not only rudely awakened to the fantasy having ended, but to the face of their own losses of friends. This ending is just too hard to take. What? It didn't end there? It did for me.
Same for the two teenagers, they left the room.
Hmmmm... it's too bad that some people took it that way. They're missing the beauty of it.
My third grade teacher first read this book to me. Okay, the whole class was there, but I felt like it was just me. I loved listening to the story and getting lost in the woods with Jess and Leslie, especially on the days I got to listen from the real treehouse in our classroom. Nice touch, huh?
I bought the book after that, but didn't ever read it again until the movie came out. I remembered the way the book ended and wanted to prepare my then 9 year old for the movie, so I read the book to her before we went to the show. She loved them both.
The movie did not disappoint! It was every bit as beautiful and complicated as the book was to me. I think that this story was perfect in third grade, at an age where I was still very much a child, but starting to ponder more grown-up things. It is a startling look at those issues, but with the love and imaginations of Jess and Leslie to fall back on, it turns out to be a rather kinder way to introduce those question than life itself would allow.
As an adult, I feel such nostalgia for the days that I could play and imagine like our two heroes. I love how real this felt on the screen. I was also still appreciative of the ending.
I usually say that I go to the movies to escape, and don't want to see "reality," but that's mostly because it is often the excuse given for including some offensive materials. In this case, I like the contrast offered by the story. There are the glorious flights of fancy, but tempered by brutal truths. That's how life is, oftentimes. No matter how hard we try to live in our own little fantasies, life does eventually catch up. It's how we survive those life-quakes that shows our character.
The last moments of the show are what makes it bearable, as you see Jess grow more than he knew he could. Childhood innocence may have been stripped away, but love and imagination conquer all. How nice to know that there will always be children around to show us how to live, even when we think we can't.
By the way - good job, Brian. AGAIN!
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