Bridge to Terabithia marks director Gabor Csupo’s first attempt at a feature-length, live-action film. He seems to have a propensity to animation; he spent the eighties and nineties producing everything from a few episodes of the children’s cartoon Rugrats to the more adult Duckman. So it seems strange that the only real movie he’s ever made is as good as it is.
Terabithia stars Josh Hutcherson as Jess, a boy with four sisters and parents who struggle to provide. He deals with the cruel way his middle-school classmates treat him with class and dignity, and releases with his talent for art and the fact that he races faster than any other kid in his grade.
Along comes Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb), the new girl, who also seems to have a natural placeholder near the bottom of the social ladder. Together, they bond in the strangest of ways – they imagine a world of magic and trolls and dark wizards. In Terabithia, as their hand-made sign says, nothing can crush them.
Hutcherson and Robb breathe life into their characters by delivering a solid performance. They should both have successful careers on the horizons. Coupled with the story about the unbelievable powers of the imagination and the horrendous face of loss, Bridge to Terabithia is as heartwarming as it is heartbreaking.
Unfortunately, Csupo has decided to make the film as appealing to its target age group as possible, and there are a few points which suffer from this. There are two or three montages that have been crammed full of the most misplaced pop-rock songs in cinema history, supposedly to make the kiddos viewing experience more pleasurable, and probably more marketable. Did someone say, “Buy the soundtrack on Disney records?”
Ultimately, the movie did not have quite the talent behind the camera as it did in front to make Bridge to Terabithia a perfect movie. An oversweetened ending seemed forced (even if it was taken directly from Katherine Paterson’s novel), and the whole thing kept fading back into the realm of bubblegum-trendy. But it’s still a movie worth watching. And watching again. And again.
It's also good to see Robert Patrick (Terminator 2, The Faculty) back in action, playing Jess's father, alongside Zooey Deschanel (Elf, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) as Jess's music teacher.