I love watching movies in provincial SMs. I get most of the amenities of the SM movie theater (a decent, though not necessarily stellar sound system, nice clean seats and a decent snack bar) at roughly half what I pay for a movie in Manila.
Today I watched Bridge of Terabithia with my son at SM Dasmarinas. I watched it for the two reasons only: I was trying to beat the heat by killing time in a mall and it was the only movie I could get my son into that looked halfway decent. I had seen some of the early trailers and was initially turned off by by what appeared to be yet another fantasy clone spurred by the success of the Harry Potter and Narnia film adaptations. Never was I happier to be proven wrong.
Bridge to Terabithia is apparently based, not on a fantasy novel, but a coming-of-age book which has more in common with the film My Girl than it does with Harry Potter. For those who have forgotten that movie, it was essentially about friendship, pre-pubescent love, and dealing with loss. I am actually glad to have been completely ignorant of this as the story unfolded because I found myself surprised at almost every turn.
Its story revolves around Jesse Aaron (Josh Hutcherson), an imaginative and very artistic ten-year-old boy who is bullied at school and neglected at home. He is very much the loner until he meets a kindred spirit: the new girl in school name Leslie Burke (Annasophia Robb of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), who like him is ostracized because of being the new kid in school but more importantly because, like him, she is an artist, although her inclination is towards writing. She is also ignored by and large by her parents, both writers. They also turn out to be neighbors. A match made in heaven, obviously.
Terabithia is Leslie's creation; it is the name she gives to a large tract of forest land into which the two children wander by swinging across a frayed old rope. It is a fantastical realm with all kinds of creatures, and because Jess is as imaginative as Leslie they both see wondrous and scary things, all of which are rather well-rendered in CGI by Oscar winners WETA Digital.
In this world, Jess and Leslie reign supreme. They are the fastest, the strongest and the cleverest. They are, as Leslie proclaims, the rulers of the realm.
Then, however, tragedy strikes and the focus of the story shifts considerably in tone. Director Gabor Csupo and his stars, however, make the segue seamlessly, and the end result, for me, is truly moving.
Their story, which is one of friendship which evolves subtly and beautifully into a very genuine young love, is, however, told with both taste and finesse. Csupo eschews the usual conventions of romance, abandoning the more overt physical manifestations of love like holding hands and kisses in favor of some very expressive facial acting by Hutcherson in particular. This is very much a story about emotions, and they are conveyed very convincingly here.
The visual effects lack the verisimilitude of the WETA Digital's prior work in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong, but this makes perfect sense considering that this world is more impressionistic in nature; it's a fantasy realm born out of two children's very active imaginations. They are wondrous to behold when appreciated on those terms.
Terabithia is easily the best release of 2007 that I've seen so far, providing a welcome contrast to the all-out stupidity of Ghost Rider and the mindless carnage of 300. It's the first film I've seen this year with nuanced, sophisticated storytelling which is funny considering it was based on a children's book. I think it succeeds, however, because it does not at any point treat its audience like children.
2 comments:
Post a Comment