Kids and Play

Devoted followers of Katherine Paterson's "Bridge to Terabithia" needn't be concerned. The film version is a reverent, harmless, almost innocuous adaptation of the beloved children's book which is surely not going to offend anyone. Sadly, it also might not move anyone, either. The story remains the same; book is only slightly updated (kids use gadgets in school and there's a mention of "downloading") but otherwise "Bridge" still exists in a world of farms and forests where children can disappear for hours on end with little to no ramifications. There not much to recommend the film for adults (at least those that don't already hold the book dear), but the filmmakers do a nice job keeping the enchantment level high while (pardon the phrase) keeping it real.

As in the book, things are pretty tough for young Jesse Aarons (Josh Hutcherson). The boy is skilled with a paintbrush but lacking in social skills. To escape the grim, bully-infested realities of elementary school, young Jesse and his new neighbor Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb) invent the titular kingdom in an abandoned forest by a fortuitously-placed rope swing. Using the power of their imaginations - and some deftly-handled CGI - Jesse and Leslie find ways to cope with their lives in this made-up world.

The film struck me as a kind of sunny flipside to "Pan's Labyrinth". While the kids in "Bridge" don't have it easy by any means - Jesse's parents don't have two nickels to rub together, and there's a definite bully problem at school - this is a PG-rated affair, so you're not going to find the type of evil that was at work in Guillermo del Toro's recent dark masterpiece. In "Bridge", however, if it weren't for these few issues, the kids' lives would be, well, kinda dull. Now, keep in mind, I'm not a young kid watching this movie, and I recognize that being ostracized to a pre-teen is akin to having the plague, so children might find some suspense in the otherwise wispy plot.

Young Mr. Hutcherson ("RV") has a charming reticence and the pixie-eyed Ms. Robb does her precocious best as Leslie (who couldn't be more of a 180 from her turn as Violet in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"). On the adult side of the picture, Robert Patrick does some fine understated work and Zooey Deschanel wide-eyes her way through the role of Ms. Edmonds, the kids' "crunchy" music teacher. But this movie belongs to the kids, and the adorable Bailee Madison nearly steals the show as Jesse's younger sister May Belle.

Like the recent Beatrix Potter biopic "Miss Potter" and, to a much lesser extent, "Better Off Dead", Jesse's drawings frequently come to life as he draws them. Animation expert Gabor Csupo is no stranger to kiddie fare (he worked on "The Simpsons" as well as "The Rugrats" and "The Wild Thornberrys") and he makes an able feature film directing debut here. The minor flourishes of animation in the film are subtly handled and, while you might need a heart of coal to stay dry-eyed throughout the film, I respected that the filmmakers never got manipulative with the subject matter. In a world of video game consoles which lead inevitably to video game adaptations, "Bridge" is, if nothing else, a breath of fresh air - an old school fairytale from a simpler time. Who knows, kids might even get into using their imaginations again.