It's the cruel irony of life: when we are kids we want nothing more than to grow up, to have what we care about be taken seriously. Yet once we grow up we long for the freedom we had as children, when things didn't have to be so serious. Bridge to Terabithia understands this irony and takes it to heart, creating one of the best - and most melancholy - coming of age films in recent memory.When I say "melancholy," I'm not using that word lightly. This film was widely promoted as a fantasy film about a magical world, yet that is not the case. The magical world shown in the commercials, Terabithia, is nothing more than a creation in the minds of the film's two protagonists, and it serves more as a metaphor for their alienation than as a place in which to have adventures; Narnia this is not. Instead, the film is firmly planted in reality, and as such it deals with real issues that affect kids of every generation.
Jesse is growing up in a poor farming family with four sisters and no real friends. One day a new girl named Leslie shows up at school. The two turn our to be neighbors and they strike up a friendship. Both feel excluded and alienated at school, so when they discover an old treehouse in the woods they create a fantasy story around it. It is up to them to defend the imaginary land of Terabithia from the misunderstood trolls and the evil squogres (part squirrel, part ogre). There's even a dark lord roaming the forest.
Jesse and Leslie are played to perfection by Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb, never becoming caricatures and refraining from being too cute. The best performance, though, is given by Robert Patrick, who has been doing strong, underrated work for a while now (Walk the Line). Here he plays Jesse's stern yet loving father, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that he never felt like the cliched parent you typically find in these sorts of films. He is neither too harsh, nor too sympathetic, instead striking a balance between the two that feels genuine and organic from the story. Because Jesse comes from a poor family, his father works extra hard to ensure that they can live happily. So when he asks Jesse to to grow up and help him take care of the family it is sad because we see the person Jesse will become by having to sacrifice his imagination and his childhood freedom (and Terabithia) in order to become an adult. At its heart, Bridge to Terabithia is about the sadness to be found in the things we lose forever by growing up.
I've heretofore said little about the twist that happens about 2/3rds of the way into the film. I won't spoil it for those who haven't read the book, but I will say that you cannot go into this film looking to simply be entertained (go rent The Goonies if you want a breezy coming of age film). That's not to say it isn't entertaining - it very much is at times - but it goes from occasionally melancholy to downright depressing at the end, and when it's over you are really left thinking. This is a film that refuses to be forgotten after the screen goes black. That's a rarity among most films, let alone children's tales. I knew how it was going to end before I watched it and I thought I was prepared for it, but it still hit me like a ton of bricks. That's because the film establishes these characters so effectively that it totally earns its final half hour. This is the kind of film that will stick with you throughout the rest of your life if you see it as a kid, but I recommend it for anyone who remembers what it was like to be a child and sometimes even longs to go back to that seemingly simpler time.
