Bridge To Terabithia (merged) - Discussion (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

For non-spoiler reviews, please post here.

Since the film is out, spoilers can be discussed in this thread, so be warned of such discourse here.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Okay...seriously, spoilers below:

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Okay, I'll admit it, I was fighting back some tears, and failed miserably. The film got me in the last act.

It is a shame that the marketing of this film undermines a wonderful story, perhaps it was needed to put butts in the seats, but I didn't think so. All it did was make you wonder, "when will we see all the stuff from the commercials/trailers?"

 

[ChrisBEA]

This movie absolutely floored me. It was so much better than I was expecting.

Emotionally resonant, excellent performances, nice use of effects. This could be a new famuly classic.

 

[Adam_S]

If I recall correctly, this book has been tearing up readers (and entire classes) ever since it was published, certainly did so to me as a kid.

I would strongly suggest people who like the movie and never read the book to also check out Katharine Patterson's other books, in particular, The Great Gilly Hopkins--my fourth grade teacher read that aloud to us uncensored and it was the first time any of us had ever heard a teacher swear (Gilly if found of using damn). It's perhaps even better than Bridge.

Of course both books pale in comparison to The Giver, which is one of the finest books written in the past fifty years, regardless of whom it was written for. Luckily, Walden is also planning on making the Giver as well. I just wonder if they'll try to hide aspects of that book as well in the marketing.

The positive response makes me so thrilled that the same company is making The Dark is Rising

Still sends shivers down my back, fourteen years after I first read it.

 

[Josh.C]

I'm glad I knew nothing about this movie going into it. I was expecting something different, and was happy that the movie wasn't at all what I was expecting after the credits started to roll.

The movie 100% "real life", despite it's label of fiction. It covers topics that every family deals with, and hits home with tremendous punch. It was so incredibly powerful and touching, that I was doing all I could to hold back the tears welling up in my eyes.

Excellent film, and I can almost guarantee it will be on my top 10 (probably top 5) for 2007.

9.5/10 (very very close to a 10/10, and it might get there after a second viewing)

JC

 

[DaveF]

Despite the changes made from the book, the movie still carried the emotional power -- it was difficult in the movie to not break down sobbing As I've said, this is one of my favorite books and it's satisfying seeing such a strong movie translation.

I was just flipping through my book, reminded of some of the scenes and seeing the similarities and differences. I'd forgotten that Jess punched May Belle in the face in the book -- they actually softened that scene for the movie.

What I miss most, though, was the dialog between Jess and his father at the end. In the book, Jess' father sees him hurl his paints and papers into the stream. His father bluntly comments, "That was a damn fool thing to do." That line has always captured for me so much of the flavor of the book. I can understand its removal, yet I missed it and consider that a mistake.

The movie is true to the moment, though it softens the father. He's more brusque still in the book.

But as I flip through the book, I'm more impressed with the movie. The book has a great deal of internal dialog from Jess. The movie did a good job of externalizing that through its dialog, action, and invented scenes.

One that was of particular interest to me was Leslie's reading of her SCUBA essay. In the book, as Jess listens, he is engrossed in her story so much becomes claustrophic. And he chastises himself for being a coward, in comparison to Leslie. The movie used the imagined bubbles and sounds to depict how engaged Jess was, how powerful Leslie's imagery was to him. It perhaps missed some of his internal timidity, but that came out through other scenes.

And I was very impressed with the transition of Jess, the happy, even jubiliant Terebithian outside to Jess the dour, guarded son at home.

 

[Neil Joseph]

I went in expecting what the trailers had to offer. That trailer was the inspiration for my wife seeing the film. My family came away not liking the movie.

I loved it.

I believe that my comments are probably going to summarize the response of people seeing this film especially those not familiar with the book.

 

[Josh.C]

I'm really surprised there hasn't been more discussion on this movie after a Great opening weekend.

Where's all the chatter?

JC

 

[DaveF]

Adam, that will be very interesting. I loved The Giver...until the end. At which point if fell apart into an incoherent conclusion. At least to my eyes.

There are some wonderful children's books out, new and old. As I noted in another thread, I was surprised to learn that The Tale of Despereaux is being made as an animated feature. Kate DiCamillo is a wonderful author.

My current new-favorite of the past five years would also seem to be perfect for film adaptation: The City of Ember.


Back to Terabithia: Patrick, your comments about the preview were realized in the recent Entertainment Weekly review. The reviewer based his review on the movie's failure to fulfill the preview's setup. It was frustrating to me, as it showed a complete inability to understand a movie on its own terms. The unfortunate conclusion is that a wonderful movie was given a C- because the marketing department wanted to sell some other story (and because of incompetent reviewing).

 

[Adam_S]

 

[Abby_B]

I'm so pleased to see the favorable critical response to this film - I think it's at 87% fresh over at the Rotten Tomatoes tomatometer, last I saw anyway. This is just one of those fantastic movies that gets better after you see it and think about it a while, does that make sense? Because the more I consider it, the more impressed I am with how they handled the potentially tricky subject matter, and with how they kept true to the spirit of the book within the film. (For example, I loved how they didn't go out of their way to push the fact that Jess's life is difficult because his family is poor, but I liked how it was always a background concern that infused the characters in the family, and their reactions to things.)

On another topic, I also read The Giver for a children's lit class, and I adored that book beyond the telling of it. I wonder if they'd ever make a film adaptation of that? Or if that would even work. I'm not sure.

 

[Adam_S]

Spoiler, adapting the Giver
so long as the movie starts off in black and white and gains color as Jonas gains memory of a world with color I'll be happy. Not doing something so integral to the book and so obviously visual would be the height of folly. but I can see them trying to write around it because, 'we don't want to scare off kids with black and white'. If they do go the black and white route, it'll be another terabithia issue where the advertising tries to hide the fact that it's black and white for part of the movie.

Adam

 

[DaveF]

Adam, I interpreted The Giver similarly. However, the author seems to disavow such an interpretation, leaving me further frustrated and perplexed with the ending.

Abby - it's good to hear it's getting good critical press. It also did well on opening weekend. Hopefully it has legs.

 

[Tim Glover]

Just saw this tonight and posted my review in that thread.

Wow. Kind of slow at first, which was a good thing. I did read James Berardinelli's review prior to this so I think I went in with reasonable expectations and not expecting nor wanting Narnia or Potter. What I did get was a very thoughtful, meaningful film. Sweet, and such a great message.

But dangit, I didn't see this coming. Going to use spoilers anyway just in case some poor soul accidentally reads this thread who hasn't seen it yet:

Leslie's death! Crap...Like a knife in the back. NEVER in my wildest dreams did I see that one coming.

I kept telling myself, surely some magical event wlll happen or they'll wake up and this won't have ever happened. But it did happen. Blew me away. It actually took me awhile to recover. I was madder than hell, then turned to sadness & some tears.

Powerful film that is honest and brave. A few times the score was somewhat close to Narnia's but that's a good thing. It was effective and pretty. Wouldn't mind owning it...

I scored it a 9/10 in my review but even now as I type I feel I should make it higher. Perhaps a second viewing is in order.

A side note, I really loved Walt Disney's new intro or whatever it's called. A nice change that looked elegant and magical at the same time.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Re: The Giver ->I only read it for the first time this summer. Instead of straight black and white, I would film it in sepia at first and then move into full color as the memories take hold. If color work like that isn't done, I'm not sure how the transformation could be conveyed.

About Terabithia - What follows is FULL of spoilers, so skip ahead now if you haven't seen it.

Saw the film at 10:30. Still shaking from it. The book destroyed me when I first read it as a kid. I thought for sure, with all the years and experiences and real loss than I have accumulated over the years I'd be better prepared for it this time. I'm just as emotionally frayed, if not worse. That awful clenching in my gut now has all of the relevance of the real deaths that have occupied time there. The religious element, which never really hit me when I read the book as a kid, struck me hard to the core this time. When Jesse's denial finally shatters and he shoves his sister to the ground and takes off into the woods, it further crumbled my already tenuous composure. But when his dad finds him and he asks him whether Leslie's going to hell since she didn't go to church I just lost it. The utter honesty that Robert Patrick brings to his answer just opened the floodgates further. Truly one of the standout performances of Patrick's career, his farmer here is every bit as good as his own in Walk the Line was cruel. He might not shower Jesse with affection, but he expresses his love in quiet but important ways.

If I had any problem with the film (other than the CG which went just a little overboard at times), it was the decision to place the film squarely in the present. I read the book before iPods and blackberries, and it was written before walkmans and gameboys. Including them early on destroyed the timelessness of the setting a bit. I also wish it had been made more clear that Jesse's family was merely one of the poorest of a poorer than average community. It would have better established the childrens' freedom and drive to play in the woods rather than in the living room. A big deal was made of Leslie's family's affluence in the book, and in the movie it feels like Jesse's the exception, not Leslie. I'm also not sure a family like the Aarons would have cable. One of the things that struck me when I read the book was the way that Leslie addressed her parents by their first names instead of mom and dad. It would have been nice to see that carried over to the film, as support for the isolation she feels from them.

I'm a bitter, cynical person by nature. The one area of my soul that hasn't hardened is my affinity toward children. Nothing shakes me more than the death or abuse of a child, and the manner in which Leslie dies here is particularly brutal because of the emotions it leaves behind. How long will Jesse be haunted by his guilt for not inviting her along — or not being there to pull her out? How will the connection between the art museum and Leslie's death blemish what he loves? How will Leslie's parents come to terms with the loss of a child they loved but rarely devoted enough time to really know? My heart aches for every one of them, and they're not even real! There were audible sobs throughout the theater for the last half hour. It a heartwrenching, brutal story but a honest and realistic one as well. Kids put themselves in situations like this all the time, and sometimes shit just happens. The greater good comes in engaging that pain and sadness rather that shuffling it away into the shadows and hoping it never happens to someone close to you.

I tried writing my review before coming on her but I just couldn't do it. It's still too raw for me. And how do I rate it? There are obvious and prominent flaws, but no film in the last two years has connected with me like this, stirring both my brain and my heart. The last film that came close was Children of Men, and that was my top film of 2006.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Spoilers below:


I felt for Jess as well because I didn't want him to live in a world that didn't include Leslie in it. Hell, a world without Leslie was a dimmer one as the impact of her untimely passing rippled throughout the people whose lives she touch in her own special way. The amount of guilt Jess felt for what happened to her had to be a heavy burden to bear for someone so young and without the perspective of age and experience. But when bad things happen, with enough time and compassion, Jess showed enough resilience to rebuild and improve on things important to him and his own corner of the world.

 

[Tim Glover]

Excellent, Excellent post Patrick. Wow, that sums it up right there. I really want to get in another viewing of Terabithia.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Yeah, summed up in a nutshell. It's a great coming-of-age story, but a really really brutal one. I just have always had more trouble with children dying - in fiction or reality - much more so than adults. The ending of both the book and the movie is optimistic, though I think they could have ended it with him taking his sister across the bridge. I like to think that he took a picture of the bridge and mailed it to Leslie's parents as a postcard. Somehow, as writers, I think they'd appreciate both the metaphor and the sentiment.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Jess would have drawn the bridge, and sent it to her parents.

 

[IanDP]

I just saw this last weekend with my wife. We both knew nothing about it. We had just seen the trailer and she thought it looked cute.
What a great movie. We were both caught off guard obviously.

First of all I loved the detailed atmosphere they created in school. I have spent years trying to forget my miserable middle school years, but this movie did great job of bringing me back there. The cruelty was a bit too real.

Does anybody else think that AnnaSophia Robb is going to be a huge star? It's tough for child stars to find success as adults, but here's hoping she can follow in the footsteps of, say, Natalie Portman. Robb sure has an energy that lit up the screen (for lack of a better term). She reminded me of Portman in "Beautiful Girls" or "The Professional" with that cool "wise beyond her years" vibe.

I don't watch a lot of movies starring middle schoolers, but this movie had some of the worst and best child acting I've ever seen - both ends of the spectrum. Anybody else notice that?

I think however they missed an opportunity at the end. I really expected to see Leslie as the Queen, when Jess crossed the bridge with May Belle. If Terabithia is in Jess's imagination, then why can't Leslie be there to be his queen? Seeing Leslie one last time, would have left us with an even greater sense of optimism, as it would have been showing how she will always be there with him.