Bridge To Terabithia

Bridge to Terabithia is an excellent movie based on the Newberry Award winning children's book of the same name, written by Katherine Paterson. It was adapted to the screen by Jeff Stockwell and David Paterson. I'm not sure what the relationship between David and Katherine Paterson is. NOTE: This review will reveal only minor details about the plot.

Let me start by stating that I have never read the book that this movie is based on. However, This book won the Newbery Medal in 1978. The Newbery Medal is about the highest literary award that a children's book can receive. So this book was obviously of high quality. The writing must have adapted well to the screen play, because the dialogue and rhythm of this movie flowed freely. The writing was exceptional. The storyline itself reminded me in many ways of My Girl, the McCauley Culkin movie about the child that dies of bee stings. The mood of the two movies seemed similar, although the stories were very different.

Josh Hutcherson (who recently appeared in Firehouse Dog) played the lead role of Jesse. His acting was spot on. His co-lead was played by Anna Sophia Robb (the little girl from Because of Winn Dixie). The chemistry between these two actors seemed genuine. They both delivered phenomenal performances beyond their years. Dealing with subject matter that included interacting with imaginary creatures and ultimately dealing with difficult subject matter is not always an easy task. They handled these various situations flawlessly delivering excellent performances. The rest of the supporting cast were secondary to the story being told, but supported the story adequately.

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