Crossing the Bridge: A DVD Review of "Bridge to Terabithia"

I had never heard of the novel "Bridge to Terabithia" when I popped in the DVD version of the movie made from it. When I reviewed the bonus materials on this DVD and saw how glowingly so many people talked about reading this book and how it had become such a part of many school's curriculum, it made me curious and want to go back and find the book. Sure, it's supposed to be a book for kids, but so is Harry Potter, and I read those.

In short, viewing this movie made me want to seek out the root and source material. I hope that this comes across as a compliment. I am not one who always assumes the book is better, but that is often the case. With this, I have a hard time believing it.

I am not the world's biggest fan of family movies. I don't have a family of my own, so seeing movies for kids isn't high on my list of things to do. In fact, I generally don't go see Disney movies unless the word "PIXAR" is attached to the project somewhere. So, it was with some reservation that I put this DVD in. I figured, this was the life of a guy who fancies himself a bit of a film critic and that, at times, you have to watch kid-fare.

I ended up completely sucked in and then, abruptly, emotionally devastated by this movie. Yes, I even teared up, dammit and I am a man who just turned 36 a few weeks ago. I am a wimp, so sue me.

The story involves a boy named Josh who lives on a farm with several sisters and a hard-working father who never seems happy with him. Josh is a brilliant artist, but his father wants him to stop dreaming and come to grips with the reality of their situation. The family is struggling and their crops are not giving them any additional income. The parents have hushed private conversations where they discuss money and pour over bills.

To add to this, Josh is very unpopular at school. Since he is poor, he sometimes has to wear hand-me-down clothes. Since all of his older siblings are sister, you can imagine the issues involved here. However, Josh creates amazing characters in his drawings and he is a very fast runner.

Into his life comes a girl named Leslie. She has moved into the huge house next door to the farmhouse where Josh lives. She is from a family of writers who do not believe, or even own, a television. They have money to spare and spend time painting rooms and dancing in a bright sunny room while Josh's home seems always dark and somber.

Leslie has an imagination too. She is a writer, capable of concocting stories on the spot and telling vivid, amazing details about thing she has only heard about. She too is immediately an outcast. She is new, she does weird things and, heaven forbid, she doesn't watch television.

She is also amazingly fast as we find out when she beats Josh in a foot race on her very first day. She and Josh are wary of each other for a while and then, slowly they become friends. Both of them are seeking a way to escape the lives they have to live at school where both of them are picked on mercilessly.

One day they go for a run into the forest. They discover an old rope that lets them swing across a stream into the deeper woods beyond. Leslie suggests that the rope is enchanted and leads to another world that she soon names "Terabithia." It is magical land filled with trolls and squogres and other hybrid animals that are also good or evil. She teaches Josh how to look but, at the same time, "keep an open mind."

This is a remarkable story and a remarkable film. The imaginations of these two is amazing, and reminded me of me when I was a kid. I may never have had a magical land, but I often fought monsters and armies that existed only in my imagination.

Josh and Leslie are at that delicate point where imagination and play are still all right, but being grown up is right over the horizon. I remember my time in that state and wondering just how much longer I could go on playing with toys, or playing games.

The special effects are adequate. They need not be ultra-realistic, because they are meant to be the imagination. The imagination is not always real, but hyper-real, perhaps fuzzy at times.

Something happens in this movie that I will leave for you to discover. It took me completely by surprise and left me almost weeping. I wondered how such a thing could be in a story supposedly for children. Then I realized, not everything in childhood is pretty and dazzling and shiny. Sometimes tragic and sad things happen. Can imagination help a child get past something like that? I like to think so, and so do the makers of this film and the writers of this book.

The DVD has some extras that are interesting. There is the special about the novelist and about the impact of the book. There is your standard making-of documentary. There are audio comments from the young actors as well as the filmmakers. There is also a music video with a song sung by the young actress playing Leslie. The song itself is your standard pop nothingness, but her voice is nice. I certainly hope to see her again in future films.

So, get this movie and watch it with your kids. It may prompt a lot of questions, but those questions are good ones. In the meantime, your kids and you, will be hugely entertained.