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entertaining u newspaper: your weekly guide to entertainment
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The Number 23
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by jon bosworth jaxvillain@yahoo.com
B+ Rated PG 98 min.
I love a good childhood fantasy flick that utilizes state-of-the-art effects to flawlessly recreate the most amazing images that my imagination can concoct. I love to bring my daughters to movies that stimulate the imagination and maybe even incite some discourse. It’s important to appreciate that art can make you think about things in a new way. The way presented in a film may not always be “correct” but at least it stirs the child’s thoughts and opens dialogue between the child and the parent.
My oldest daughter is an avid reader and we love to go see films about books we have read together, because of this we can hardly wait for His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass to come to the big screen this Christmas. Although we haven’t read The Bridge to Terabithia, I had heard nothing but rave reviews of the book and the trailer made the film look like the fantasy story. I adored Pan’s Labyrinth, but that was hardly a children’s movie in spite of its fantasy element, so I hoped this film would be the childhood fantasy equivalent. It was and it was not.
This film celebrated a child’s imaginations and the possibilities that exist when you seek to incorporate that imagination into your life in order to make sense of the harshness that can be reality in the pre-teen school life. Jesse Aarons is played by Josh Hutcherson (RV, Zathura). Jesse is an average kid from a family full of sisters. His father works at a hardware store and can barely make ends meet. His mother stays at home raising the family of four, and because they are not wealthy, he is forced to wear his sister’s old pink tennis shoes to the first day of school. As a child that is immersed in his own imagination, he is constantly drawing pictures in his sketchbook and avoiding the other kids at school. He is something of an outcast.
Then Leslie Burke (AnnaSophia Robb) moves in next door. She is eccentric, cute, and good at standing up for herself, although she is also an outcast from the other school children. Her confidence catches Jesse’s attention, but he is always on guard. Eventually the two develop a friendship and Jesse is happier than ever. They create a fantasy world out in the woods behind their houses. There is a rope that hangs over a creek and when they swing across they enter a world where they are the king and queen and must fight the elusive forces of the Dark Master. With their imaginations they bring this world to life and it helps both of them deal with the real world situations they encounter at school.
Up to this point I found the film perfect. We were gradually introduced to the fantasy world and simultaneously learning the value of imagination and creativity to real world issues. These children were being kids and at the same time their eyes, possibilities, and lives were opening up to the potential of the real world. Reality may be stranger than fiction, but fiction allows us to deal with reality. What a fantastic message for children to receive, and how impressive that Hollywood would take the time to deliver this message. But this isn’t totally what the film is about. After you are introduced to the situation that these children are faced with and the world they create to deal with those situations, you see them becoming happy, but don’t get too sold on it. This movie is a tear-jerker that deals with the intensely heavy topic of death.
I don’t want to spoil the movie for those of you eager to see it, but don’t let the trailers, which celebrate the fantasy aspects of this film and present it as a children’s buddy picture, trick you. This film is about losing a friend right when they were changing your outlook on life. Halfway through the film every eye in the theatre, including everyone in my family, was weeping and the crying didn’t really stop until the very end. I’m not saying it was a bad film, I’m just begging you to be prepared. This tear-jerker has a terrific message, and the lessons that young Jesse Aarons learns are valuable for any person of any age. Death is difficult to deal with, but through Jesse you can not only relate to the loss of someone you loved in your own life, but you can see how those people can live on through what we learn from them.
It is a beautiful film and it there are some truly spectacular performances, especially from Bailee Madison who plays Jesse’s younger sister May Belle. This is a starlet on the rise who, if she can keep it together while growing up under the hot lights of Hollywood, I imagine we will see outstanding performances from throughout her life. Her talent is shining star even in this well cast and articulately acted film.
See Bridge to Terabithia, definitely, but bring a box of tissues and get ready to have some serious conversations about death, imagination, and even God when leaving the theatre, because this film deals with big issues through the small lense of a young boy’s life.
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