I happened to catch Bridge to Terabithia on cable recently. I had resisted seeing it in the theaters with my girl when it came out because I had read the book as a kid and the only thing I remembered was that the girl dies. Yes, the girl dies!(9 year old me + summer reading list that included BtT) = (BtT=Death)
Sorry if I'm wrecking it for some of you but Paul had caught it on cable earlier--uh...why didn't you tell me the girl dies? I really was not in the mood for that. He had that dejected face of a kid who misheard and thought he was going to "Disney" but his mom said "dentist". So I think I'm doing some of you folks a favor, i.e., it's kind of a downer, people!
When I saw all the commercials, they made BtT look like new chapter in the Chronicles of Narnia. I totally didn't remember any of that. All that I remembered is that the girl dies in the end.
As I was watching it, more of the story came back to me and truth be told, it's a good story. And the movie is well done. I thought all the actors were great especially Josh Hutcherson as the protagonist, Jess Aarons. The fantasy stuff falls short partly because they're a bit cheesy, but mostly because the more interesting scenes of the movies are the parts grounded in reality--family life, school bullies. Watching BtT reminded me what a moving coming-of-age story it is. Even the unexpected gravity of the girl's death at the end is done well (and off-screen, BTW) and enriches the boy's journey.
On the whole I give it a B+. Even knowing about the girl, I was sucked into the story. I suggest watching BtT as a movie, as a coming-of-age story come to life, not as children's entertainment. I guess Disney deserves some kudos for having the stones to produce a movie with an unconventional, un-Disney ending.
2 comments:
Completely ruined!
Just kidding...I doubt I would ever see that.
PB
dude spoiler alert.
j/k i read that as a kid and don't remember anything about it. and i have no idea what happened in a wrinkle in time either.
it was kinda like the water horse. we thought it was going to be an adventure of a baby loch ness monster... but it was actually about how the kid's dad went off during wwII and was killed and he refused to accept it even though everyone else has, and then the mom falls for their handyman who amazingly enough, gets on SO marvelously w/ the kids and oh what, there was a water horse in this movie??
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