Anna Sophia Robb and Josh Hutcherson give strong performances as the two heroes of the tale who find connection with one another in a school that’s basically locked them out socially. Jess is a bullied outcast, and Leslie is a free spirited thinker who is instantly a target for bullying once she displays individual thought. The performances from the child actors had me at attention and they both deliver their characters with great talent. Hutcherson’s take on the conflicted and neglected artist is often times heart wrenching, while Leslie is an quickly sympathetic heroine who we want to see more of as the time goes on her. Robb has a wide-eyed innocence about her that makes her the perfect compliment to the principle cast.
Along the second half, when forcing the religious themes aside, Gabor Csupo’s fantasy has a genuinely good theme about grieving the loss of a friend and the stages of death including denial, blame, bargaining, and eventual acceptance, and I was near tears the entire time when the twist occurred and we’re forced to watch our characters grapple this with sudden loss. It’s played off with predictable foreshadowing, but the eventually announcement is a surefire punch in the gut. The prior aftermath is heartbreaking and I was interested to see how it would all unfold. One thing that really unleashes my sheer vitriolic rage at a movie is the ballsy intent of pushing biblical propaganda on a young impressionable audience who is sure that they’re going to a movie to see fantastic creatures. With “Chronicles of Narnia,” I knew what I was getting into.
Everyone knows it’s a biblical fantasy, and I’ve had that crap shoved down my throat since I was a kid, but “Bridge to Terabithia” purports to fool its audience into thinking it’s a fantasy film for kids about creativity and the power of imagination, and it almost won out for me while watching, but then there came the religious overtones and I felt duped. “If you don’t believe in god, he damns you to hell!” Jess’s little sister proclaims to Leslie who insists she doesn’t believe, which then progresses into the predictable plot twist of Leslie’s unfortunate demise that then turns into a heavy religious sermon about even non-believers making it into heaven, Jess’s confirmation that heaven does exist, and of course the land of Terabithia becoming a symbolic land that exists between Earth and heaven. For religious families willing to buy into it all, I guess this isn’t bad, but when a general movie-goer of another religion or perhaps no religion goes into a film assuming it’s about two kids and a fantasy world that then turns into a sermon, they will definitely feel undermined and talked down to.
Most of all hearing a little girl display this sort of apathy and stern fear tactic to an older girl will come off as so incredibly creepy and over the line, I was surprised this tried to be passed off as cute and rambunctious. “Bridge to Terabithia” wants to be many things to its audience and while it touches on these different genres every so often, it fails to build an identity. One moment it’s a fantasy with the fantasy world only introducing itself as a plot device and not a central character, the CGI monsters are lifeless because they lack emphasis even if they’re just figments of imaginations, it wants to be a romance and coming of age tale but really has an under developed view of the relationship between the two kids, and only has a trite message about life, all the while we’re never sure what this forest’s origins are.
At times the writers hint that maybe these fantastic monsters are real, but then it pulls back offering religious sources and ambiguity that ends up just annoying and hardly clever. Why doesn’t anyone ever come to it? Did these monsters actually exist? Was it all in Jess’s mind or did he have the powers to create this world? If it was all fake why did the dog respond to the battle with the creatures? Did Jess’s little sister also have this power? Nonetheless, “Bridge to Terabithia” leaves you with a lot of nagging questions and holes, and it never feels fully developed to its potential, especially when the second half is nothing but Christian overtones shoved down our throats. I’ll admit that Gabor Csupo’s fantasy drama had me hooked in the first half, up until it became pretty much a religious sermon attempting to jab at impressionable viewers about god, heaven, and spirituality. Save it for “Veggie Tales,” schmucks.